Ok, just now pissed off with an
AIS target that disturbed my relaxation by entering my
safety zone. The target will appear on my MFD for perhaps 30 seconds and then disappear for 2 or 3 minutes. As a result it kept setting off my
alarm.
It appears as type "unknown", no name, call sign or anything else that is programmed normally into a transponder, other than MMSI..
It has me wondering if the yacht is using an
AIS TX that is designed for crab pot, It makes sense that a
battery operated transmitter designed for a stationary object would shut down its transmitter to save
battery.
Whilst for me in good daylight visibility it is just an annoyance, I could see that on the bridge of a ship in poor visibility that they might assume it is a stationary crab pot. if they are not going to run over its
current position, they might either turn off the
alarm or even the class B RX.
So saving
money in
safety might be a bad mistake.
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