Such a lot of fussing and arguing over the gnats with no actual value to real cruising sailors. The actual data is quite simple. I really do not care about the reasons, although they do of course matter to some in the business. With a 45 foot high
antenna, here is what we see:
- We expect 100% AIS contact with Class A systems at 20 NM.
- We routinely get contact with Class A systems at 50 NM to 100 NM .
- On open water, we occasionally (1/day or more) get Class A contacts between 100NM and 200NM
- About 1/week we see Class A contacts at >300NM.
For Class B systems we expect to see them at 10NM, but honestly so many recreational
boat have systems that are in such poor shape from bad install or bad
maintenance, that we frequently don't see them until 1 or 2NM out.
As far as I have been able to tell, the ranges we see for our receiver contacts are typical for recreational systems in good condition with antennas,
cables, and receivers installed properly and working well with antennas at normal sailboat masthead heights, operating in open
water.
This data is collected and sorted back to me based on my boat's status as a mobile reporting station for
Marine Traffic. It's not based on my personal observations, but actual data collected on all of the position reports received by my
boat.
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