Ais tracking

I've cruised one season with passive AIS (receive only) and I'm on the verge of upgrading to a transceiver.

I just went to the marinetraffic website and notice that you and I are depicted as non-specific "pleasure vessel". Is there a filter I'm not seeing, (I've found the one which turns on/off the pleasure vessels, but not one which will switch on the discrete vessel ID.)?

Am I over looking something, or am I simply on the wrong site?
/s/
Anxious in Ashland

If I understand your question, you're wondering why vessels do not show up with their name etc on their AIS signal.

If name and other info is plugged into the AIS transceiver when it's configured, it will show up. Most boats I saw on Marine Traffic this afternoon, and on the Inside Passage last summer, showed name etc, but not all.

BTW, the Vesper XB6000 I installed a year ago seems to be a good unit.

RCook said:

If name and other info is plugged into the AIS transceiver when it's configured, it will show up.

BTW, the Vesper XB6000 I installed a year ago seems to be a good unit.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the endorsement. I looked at the Vespers and pretty much decided on that brand. Is yours the model with the wi-fi?

As to the targets, I have no explanation. I did find another site called vesselfinder which does give the data. Two screen grabs of Gig Harbor attached. The one from marinetraffic above shows unlabeled targets. If you scan one, it just says "pleasure vessel".

Overall, I like the presentation at marinetraffic better, but I want the data displayed

AlaskaProf said:

I just went to the marinetraffic website and notice that you and I are depicted as non-specific "pleasure vessel". Is there a filter I'm not seeing, (I've found the one which turns on/off the pleasure vessels, but not one which will switch on the discrete vessel ID.)?

Am I over looking something, or am I simply on the wrong site?

Click to expand...

Static data (name of vessel, etc.) is only updated every 6 minutes, so perhaps that data wasn’t captured correctly or you saw it prior to capture?

https://help.marinetraffic.com/hc/e...-What-kind-of-information-is-AIS-transmitted-

You need to add "vessel names" under the layers tab, as shown in the screenshot...

Hi AlaskaProf,

The XB6000 is the basic transceiver. I think the 8000 is the wifi unit.

When I play with MarineTraffic, checking "show vessel names" makes names appear on the map next to their marks. Without that checked, you can still see a vessel's name by putting the cursor on it - but not if its name is not plugged into the AIS unit with which it is transmitting. Look at the vessels nearer Tacoma - many show names.

If there are certain vessels you'd like to keep track of, you can define a "fleet" and have it show your fleet.

For non-subscribers, I believe MT shows non-specific info only for vessels for which they receive data by satellite, rather than from a land based receiver.

As far as I can tell, marinetraffic.com has no instruction book or site and the icons are pretty hard to decipher. It's pretty much hit or miss what you get.

I would like to be able to turn certain things on or off but it's hard to figure out how to do this.

I just got my Vesper XB6000 installed and connected to my plotter and I can see vessels at some of the nearby marinas but I haven't moved the boat or dealt with other moving boats so I'll have to figure out how to set alarms, etc.

I use the "Boatbeacon" app on my phone. No, it is not a transceiver, but if you are not desperate to show your own position, it is real time, so it will show all the transmitting boats that occupy your small screen. I find it very valuable for predicting the courses of freighters in my path when I cross the Straight of Georgia, for identifying any larger vessels that may be in my path, so that I can deal with them properly, and most of all, for identifying boats passing in front of my house when I am home.
Inexpensive, and useful too.

Note that these free tracking sites are only as good as the shore stations they're connected to. Up our way, outside the main harbors, you're mostly invisible to anyone on the web-based sites.

I have the Vesper XB8000, with WiFi. Love it!

I would not worry too much about the free services as states they update every 6 minutes or so if they are IN RANGE. My boat is Raymarine equipped, so I installed a Raymarine AIS transceiver. It over lays AIS on my chart plotter which is much better than a dinky screen showing targets...

marinetraffic.com and any similar sites are not suited to collision avoidance, they are mostly for entertainment. If you're looking for AIS for your boat, an actual receiver or transceiver are what you need.

If you are sitting at home or on the dock, "apps" are fine.

CaptTom said:

Note that these free tracking sites are only as good as the shore stations they're connected to. Up our way, outside the main harbors, you're mostly invisible to anyone on the web-based sites.

I have the Vesper XB8000, with WiFi. Love it!

Click to expand...

So that I understand this correctly. Your AIS will push information directly to a WiFi enabled devise such as your IPad? No need to be connected to the internet via cellular data? No need for external multiplexers or the like?

Sorry if dumb question.

AIS is actually VHF. Class A and Class B. (I know some are now switching to Satellite)Class B being recreational. In the PNW there are antennas on mountain tops. VTS uses these with radar to track ships and those recreational required to participate.

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

AIS is actually VHF. Class A and Class B. (I know some are now switching to Satellite)Class B being recreational. In the PNW there are antennas on mountain tops. VTS uses these with radar to track ships and those recreational required to participate.

Click to expand...

Alaskan, if you are responding to my post, Thank you.......

I understand the VHF and now satellite portions of the AIS and also the land based stations picking up the vhf signals and pushing out to the internet so I can see from my living room. I am referring to the transmission of the AIS data to other WiFi enabled devises on board and obviously in close proximity to the AIS transceiver without the need for cellular internet connection. So direct from AIS to IPad for example. (Same principle as Bluetooth) Is that what is happening or is it wishful thinking on my part?

aboatman said:

marinetraffic.com and any similar sites are not suited to collision avoidance, they are mostly for entertainment.

Click to expand...

I'm looking for something I can show to family and friends so they can locate me over the course of the summer in the wilds of BC and Alaska. If Marine traffic is simply gonna display "pleasure vessel received by satellite", that won't serve.

AlaskaProf said:

I'm looking for something I can show to family and friends so they can locate me over the course of the summer in the wilds of BC and Alaska. If Marine traffic is simply gonna display "pleasure vessel received by satellite", that won't serve.

Click to expand...

If you are within VHF range of a land based station and have your boats name, picture, etc programmed into your AIS your family friends and anyone else in the world can see your position from the free apps that are available.

If you are in an area (Wilds of Alaska) without land based stations then no. From your app look in an area that you are planning on visiting. If you can see boats then you also should be able to be seen when you are there. This is a free service and there are no guarantees. If you want bullet proof tracking use a GPS tracker.

Easting said:

Alaskan, if you are responding to my post, Thank you.......

I understand the VHF and now satellite portions of the AIS and also the land based stations picking up the vhf signals and pushing out to the internet so I can see from my living room. I am referring to the transmission of the AIS data to other WiFi enabled devises on board and obviously in close proximity to the AIS transceiver without the need for cellular internet connection. So direct from AIS to IPad for example. (Same principle as Bluetooth) Is that what is happening or is it wishful thinking on my part?

Click to expand...

Well you are now out of my line of self proclaimed expertise. Maybe I missed it, but why are you wanting to do this?

AlaskaProf said:

I'm looking for something I can show to family and friends so they can locate me over the course of the summer in the wilds of BC and Alaska. If Marine traffic is simply gonna display "pleasure vessel received by satellite", that won't serve.

Click to expand...

You need something like Spot or In Reach which is what Richard used, allowing us to follow him in his journey across the Atlantic...

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

Well you are now out of my line of self proclaimed expertise. Maybe I missed it, but why are you wanting to do this?

Click to expand...

I currently use Nobeltec on my IPad for my chart plotter. It can interface with AIS wirelessly if available. I am wondering if the AIS will communicate directly to my Nobeltec/ IPad or if I need to add a Multiplexer. Let’s see what we find out

rochepoint said:

You need something like Spot or In Reach which is what Richard used, allowing us to follow him in his journey across the Atlantic...

Click to expand...

We track/tracking Scott on SeaLife with the Delorme, plus they can send and receive emails. It’s a satellite based system.

https://share.delorme.com/SeaLife

https://explore.garmin.com/en-US/inreach/

The ability of friends, family (and thieves) to track your boat on the Internet is an added benefit (or liability) of the safety system that AIS provides. There's no extra cost.

Easting said:

So that I understand this correctly. Your AIS will push information directly to a WiFi enabled devise such as your IPad? No need to be connected to the internet via cellular data? No need for external multiplexers or the like?

Sorry if dumb question.

Click to expand...

Not dumb at all. It's an evolving concept; more and more marine electronics are coming with built-in WiFi.

Yes, the Vesper will push AIS information (as well as a lot of other N2K data) to any WiFi enabled device on board. I use several Android apps which make use of it. One of the apps can control the Vesper, too. It even gets firmware updates from the app. They're loaded to the phone/tablet by the app when the device is connected to the internet, then fed to the Vesper when the device is connected to it.

To make this work, the Vesper has an internal WiFi router that can support up to 5 devices. If you need more than that, you can connect it as a node on a separate, on-board router.

Huh. We have an emTrak B100 AIS transceiver on Xanadu and our family and friends followed us pretty easily on our trip from Massachusetts to the upper Hudson. I did set up a more detailed boat profile on MarineTracker:

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:2699640/mmsi:367648420/vessel:XANADU

Our last reported position still shows the Hudson River in May 2015, the day before Coeymans Landing Marina pulled our boat for disassembly and trucking to South Dakota. When it was reassembled here they hooked up the AIS incorrectly and I've never bothered to fix it because AIS really serves no purpose when you're trapped above a dam on the Missouri River. I believe the other poster is right that if you're out of range of VHF-to-internet reporting stations you won't ping the locator services (including MarineTraffic) but we can also report our course and position using our phone's internet access, although that reporting has to be entered by hand. I'm no AIS tech by any means but as I understand it, big commercial shipping continuously reports positions because they have satellite access rather than relying on VHF-to-internet base stations.

Larry M said:

We track/tracking Scott on SeaLife with the Delorme, plus they can send and receive emails. It’s a satellite based system.



https://share.delorme.com/SeaLife



https://explore.garmin.com/en-US/inreach/

Click to expand...

We’ve been using a SPOT for the last couple of years in the PNW and SE AK but we’re going to ‘upgrade’ to a Delorme this year as we start to head south. The SPOT is fine but it is limited - you can only send preset messages and the tracking history options are limited.

Delorme looks a lot better with real-time texting and tracking options. It would be great to text while at sea....

goboatnow said:

We’ve been using a SPOT for the last couple of years in the PNW and SE AK but we’re going to ‘upgrade’ to a Delorme this year as we start to head south. The SPOT is fine but it is limited - you can only send preset messages and the tracking history options are limited.

Delorme looks a lot better with real-time texting and tracking options. It would be great to text while at sea....

Click to expand...

We've been using Delorme Inreach in BC and SE AK for several years and it's proven to be a very good product. We use it in conjunction with an Iridium sat phone. Delorme has been sold to Garmin, so now it's known as Garmin Inreach.

CaptTom said:

Not dumb at all. It's an evolving concept; more and more marine electronics are coming with built-in WiFi.

Yes, the Vesper will push AIS information (as well as a lot of other N2K data) to any WiFi enabled device on board. I use several Android apps which make use of it. One of the apps can control the Vesper, too. It even gets firmware updates from the app. They're loaded to the phone/tablet by the app when the device is connected to the internet, then fed to the Vesper when the device is connected to it.

To make this work, the Vesper has an internal WiFi router that can support up to 5 devices. If you need more than that, you can connect it as a node on a separate, on-board router.

Click to expand...

That’s great information and real progress by the marine electronics industry. Thanks!

Ken E. said:

We've been using Delorme Inreach in BC and SE AK for several years and it's proven to be a very good product. We use it in conjunction with an Iridium sat phone. Delorme has been sold to Garmin, so now it's known as Garmin Inreach.

Click to expand...

+1

I'm another happy user of the Garmin Inreach. The texting feature isn't anywhere near as fast as cellular, but worked in all the locations that cellular didn't. Internet tracking map is outstanding!

Ted

aboatman said:

As far as I can tell, marinetraffic.com has no instruction book or site and the icons are pretty hard to decipher. It's pretty much hit or miss what you get.

I would like to be able to turn certain things on or off but it's hard to figure out how to do this.

I just got my Vesper XB6000 installed and connected to my plotter and I can see vessels at some of the nearby marinas but I haven't moved the boat or dealt with other moving boats so I'll have to figure out how to set alarms, etc.

Click to expand...

What you need to keep in mind about MarineTraffic.com is that it is, or started out as, a computer science teaching tool for a university. Crete, or Cypress, or something like that. So each piece of it is someone's senior project, or something like that. It explains a lot of why the site is so discombobulated. Like when you click to go see a boat's location, it redraws the screen at least three times that I can count before it draws the one it ultimately wants. The who thing reminds be of a vomit strewn college bar on a Saturday night. To me it has become nearly unusable. Nothing seems to do what I expect, it is unbelievably slow, and my computer heats up and drains the battery at triple time when I run it.

kthoennes said:

Our last reported position still shows the Hudson River in May 2015...
...I've never bothered to fix it because AIS really serves no purpose when you're trapped above a dam on the Missouri River...
... as I understand it, big commercial shipping continuously reports positions because they have satellite access rather than relying on VHF-to-internet base stations.

Click to expand...

Yes, NY harbor and part-way up the Hudson has pretty good shore receiver coverage. It's not like that everywhere.

I haven't run the Missouri, but don't they have commercial barge traffic there? I've found AIS to be pretty handy around those guys.

Finally, yes, there are satellites which receive AIS over wide areas (maybe globally.) I've never been able to justify the cost of subscribing to receive those data. Would be a lot of fun though!

goboatnow said:

...we’re going to ‘upgrade’ to a Delorme this year as we start to head south. The SPOT is fine but it is limited - you can only send preset messages and the tracking history options are limited.

Delorme looks a lot better with real-time texting and tracking options. It would be great to text while at sea....

Click to expand...

Yes, the DeLorme (now Garmin) InReach is (was) way ahead of the competition in functionality. For a very reasonable rate we were able to send unlimited texts from our cell phones (via bluetooth to the InReach) and bread crumbs at 10-minute intervals. This works anywhere in the world, no requirement for cell coverage. And you could get an annual plan which could be dormant except for the month(s) you needed it.

Garmin has never had anything this cutting edge, this well supported and developed, and this reasonably priced. I can see why they wanted it. I hope they can keep it that way, but my experience with their other products doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

Easting said:

That’s great information and real progress by the marine electronics industry. Thanks!

Click to expand...

I think Vesper is on par with what DeLorme used to be. An innovator that aggressively developed REAL functionality useful to boaters. Too many vendors seem driven by the marketing department to make splashy but useless changes for changes' sake, rather than truly innovate.