I'm a commercial captain and I never leave the dock without the transceiver on. I find it especially useful for predicting traffic issues, like ferries coming out of SF, or crew boats moving around behind ships in the anchorage. When I see a potential issue on the overlay on my MFD, I scroll over the icon and it tells me which vessel I need to hail to resolve the problem at hand.
I have also used the AIS alarm feature on ocean deliveries. Set it to make some noise when a target is within a certain range, and you can rest that much easier on night watches. I've even set it while single-handing so I could sleep.
Necessary equipment in my mind.
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