AIS feature on Icom M94D - useful?

[JPK]

Thanks. I have the M92D already, which has GPS and DSC. I'm going to call that good enough for now.

[Dirk01]

Originally Posted by JPK

Thanks. I have the M92D already, which has GPS and DSC. I'm going to call that good enough for now.

I have the M94D and sailed from Croatia to Kiel (Baltic Sea). I was glad to have AIS (regardless if active or passive), because basically a charter boat doesn't have it at all. But however some rare times I used it to get into contact with freighters or trawlers (also remember post #4). But most times I used it just to observe others and to adapt my course right in time to not get into trouble or force others to change their course.

From my point it is worth to have it as a second source in case of a defect of the built in active AIS (which every cruiser should have IMO). And of course for the ditch bag in case of real sh*t.

My personell advice: Sell your M92D and upgrade to the M94D.

Cheers
Dirk

[Capt Ron1]

Hi does your M94D see it's own MMSI?Mine sees some other boats with AIS but not all.Thanks Ron

[donradcliffe]

The previous posters were talking about receiving Ais transmissions from their fixed ais transponder to verify that they were working. The M94D is only a receiver, so it will never see its own transmissions.

[Dirk01]

Originally Posted by Capt Ron1

Hi does your M94D see it's own MMSI?Mine sees some other boats with AIS but not all.Thanks Ron

As others already said - it's only a receiver. And the capability to receive messeges is limited. You've to put it up as high as possible or it is unsuitable. Additionally it sometimes takes time to receive masseges. In other cases (mostly relating to smaller fishing boats) they don't have an AIS transceiver or deactivated it to not show to others where they are actually fishing or going to fish.
AIS is NOT to be intended as a single source of collision prevention! Neither a RADAR is. 1st rule is still to keep a sharp lookout.
However, a combination of RADAR (preferably with MARPA) and AIS gives you a profound help of collision prevention at all if carefully used. But you still have to know the limits of each system (including your personal senses) and act accordingly.

The only thing I can say is, that an AIS receiver might be a big help in some cases and easens the traffic flow. Give others (mostly big vessels) a hint, where and who you are and what are you going to do (if your AIS is only a receiver like a MD94D). They will be grateful. Believe me. I did it more then one time (although seldom).

Cheers
Dirk

[s/v Jedi]

We have this handheld and used it for the past two years. My impressions:

- it feels cheap light plastic. I think this is to get it to float.

- it has GPS and DSC which is a big pro

- it has an AIS receiver that works perfectly (not sure why people report problems, must be their specific unit). The little radar screen shows distance and direction, what more does one expect?

- it has a very useful feature where you can navigate to a target. This can be handy to find the mothership with the dinghy.

All in all we like it enough. We like it a lot to take with us in the dinghy, especially for longer trips and/or over open water.

I wouldn’t buy it to replace a perfectly fine radio just for AIS.

[Dirk01]

Originally Posted by Dirk01

As others already said - it's only a receiver. And the capability to receive messeges is limited. You've to put it up as high as possible or it is unsuitable. Additionally it sometimes takes time to receive masseges. In other cases (mostly relating to smaller fishing boats) they don't have an AIS transceiver or deactivated it to not show to others where they are actually fishing or going to fish.
AIS is NOT to be intended as a single source of collision prevention! Neither a RADAR is. 1st rule is still to keep a sharp lookout.
However, a combination of RADAR (preferably with MARPA) and AIS gives you a profound help of collision prevention at all if carefully used. But you still have to know the limits of each system (including your personal senses) and act accordingly.

The only thing I can say is, that an AIS receiver might be a big help in some cases and easens the traffic flow. Give others (mostly big vessels) a hint, where and who you are and what are you going to do (if your AIS is only a receiver like a MD94D). They will be grateful. Believe me. I did it more then one time (although seldom).

Cheers
Dirk

Maybe I should add an important thing:

In the past I transferred some (charter!)yachts for a friend. Only the last one has had an AIS shown up on the MFD (which wasn't activated as a sender - probably because of the registration costs - completely incomprehensible in my eyes). So, in all other cases it was really a big help and I'll have one on my own boat which I'm in the buying process in.

But, as Nick just said, to replace a perfect fit of an existing one - questionable. Redundancy maybe another reason?

Cheers
Dirk

[Capt Ron1]

I just bought the Icom M94D and for some reason can not see my own boat's AIS signal.I am using a different MMSI on the AIS than the handheld.My boat is at anchor and I saw the post about static AIS not being read by the handheld.Can not figure out why it sees other boat's AIS but not mine which shows perfectly on marine traffic.Thoughts??Thanks

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by Capt Ron1

I just bought the Icom M94D and for some reason can not see my own boat's AIS signal.I am using a different MMSI on the AIS than the handheld.My boat is at anchor and I saw the post about static AIS not being read by the handheld.Can not figure out why it sees other boat's AIS but not mine which shows perfectly on marine traffic.Thoughts??Thanks

Don't know that radio, but is there a setting to exclude boats under a certain speed?

-Chris

[Capt Ron1]

Yes you can exclude any MMSI of your choice but that is not turned on at all.The funny thing is that the handheld sees other boats who are at anchor but not mine.The people at Icom are stumped about this issue.Thanks

[davefromoregon]

So, I could have saved myself a trip to west marine today if I’d read this first…..

Does anyone have a recommendation of a handheld VHF radio with both SEND and Receive AIS?

I figure this works through the following order:
0), ais receive via the internet.
1). AIS Send/receive through the internet( I’m here)
2). AIS receive. This would be the M94d
3). Ais send/receive.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by davefromoregon

So, I could have saved myself a trip to west marine today if I’d read this first…..

Does anyone have a recommendation of a handheld VHF radio with both SEND and Receive AIS?

I figure this works through the following order:
0), ais receive via the internet.
1). AIS Send/receive through the internet( I’m here)
2). AIS receive. This would be the M94d
3). Ais send/receive.

Doesn’t exist. Only a MOB tx signal is allowed for handheld.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by davefromoregon

So, I could have saved myself a trip to west marine today if I’d read this first…..

Does anyone have a recommendation of a handheld VHF radio with both SEND and Receive AIS?

I figure this works through the following order:
0), ais receive via the internet.
1). AIS Send/receive through the internet( I’m here)
2). AIS receive. This would be the M94d
3). Ais send/receive.

I've come to think AIS via internet isn't all that useful. To the point it's really not better than nothing, if you were to believe you could rely on it for real-time situational awareness.

Too many gaps in receive/forward stations... and often too much latency in the store/forward/process/display process.

-Chris

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by Capt Ron1

Yes you can exclude any MMSI of your choice but that is not turned on at all.The funny thing is that the handheld sees other boats who are at anchor but not mine.The people at Icom are stumped about this issue.Thanks

Have you tried moving the handheld off the boat, seeing if you show up?

Not sure what I'd expect from that, though...

-Chris