Icom m506 AIS not warning...

[Steven UK]

I have a Icom 506 with built in AIS receiver that seems to work very well. After a dismantling during Dorian it now has a new antenna and a single run of coax from Antenna direct to the back of the radio. Great signal etc.
My issue is that if I am not on the AIS screen I don’t get any AIS warnings. Now at anchor in St Augustine if I switch to the AIS screen I will get a warning every 20-30 seconds. If I key the mike it switches back to VHF screen and no more warnings. But more worryingly it will time out and go back to VHF after a while, and no more warnings. It didn’t always do this so I may have done something... I’m heading to Bermuda on Sunday so would like this to work so I can sleep a bit better... I’m single handing.

Regards Steven

[Flatswing]

AIS updates every 30 seconds, r u seeing targets in AIS mode? If not, what is the AIS source for your unit? Some AIS receivers seem to require power cycling frequently to resume proper broadcast/receive.

[Steven UK]

Flat swing
The AIS is internal to the radio and works just fine when the screen is selected. But the radio keeps switching to VHF screen and then it will not warn. I have requested help from ICOM but nothing worth mentioning has returned. I’m sure it’s a software or user defined issue.

Regards Steven

[Steven UK]

Just closing the loop... the radio will not warn of an AIS target when on the VHF screen it will warn when on Combo or AIS screens. But in settings there is a ‘inactivity timer’ that will switch the radio from either the AIS or Combo screens back to VHF. When this happens it will no longer warn of a collision. I don’t know why the ‘inactivity timer’ was set but it was. With this disabled the radio works as it should.
Regards Steven