Radar Reflector vs AIS Receiver?

[Graham B]

Evening All,

Me and Micky have been deep in discussion which is the best route to take regarding fitting either my choice of an AIS receiver which will interface to our plotters and overlay on the screen or:
Micky's preference of an expensive-ish reflector approved by the RNLI costing over 200 quid.
The main drawbacks of the AIS that we can see are the cost of purchasing, fitting and the extra drain on the battery which is the biggest stumbling block for us.
I prefer the AIS option though as you are watching other ships/targets rather than with the reflector still hoping they are looking at their radar(if fitted and tuned correctly) and watching you????? i am sure there is a bit of voyeurism in there somewhere!
It's either that or put a cheap reflector on and keep a better lookout(fog permitting!). It all came to a head last year when a pea souper descended and made my behind twitch a little after we nearly rear ended a small container ship coming back up the Tyne!
Anyone got any ideas which option to take? Home next week fingers crossed and with the Royal Quays lock shut down not planned until October as opposed to March it's all systems go! weather Permitting!

Graham.

[easyfish1]

just my opinion graham..

AIS and.........cheap radar reflector

see and be seen...i know we dont plan to go out in the fog..but sometimes it can catch us out..

[lingking]

just my opinion graham..

AIS and.........cheap radar reflector

see and be seen...i know we dont plan to go out in the fog..but sometimes it can catch us out..

im with rob on this see and be seen

you aint a sas sniper

ps bring some good weather back

[The Jester]

You have a cracking setup with the new boat Graham, so i would go with the best you can afford
If you have 2 plotters and can have 1 on AIS constantly and the other on nav i would go for that option then you are in control of the envioroment you're in. If you only have one plotter, i would go for the other option as nav in the fog is more important. Or if its split screen and you can display both, even better.....The cheap plastic tube types are useless, on another forum they tried them out and it didnt show up on the radar

[Paul_h]

Graham
please remember that it is only manditory for boats over 300 ton to transpond AIS signal, so that leaves a lot of big boats, trawlers etc, out there that has no AIS & you will not pick up on your plotter.

However these boats normally have radar and IF...IF they are at the helm (and not on the deck gutting & sorting) they will see you if a reflector is fitted.

my advice would be reflector, echomax or tri-lens, if you want to spend a bit more coin then the radar enhancers like see-me.

The Radar Reflector Site

i have AIS for quite a few years and wouldn't be without it BUT a reflector is a first choice if you cannot afford both.

The cheaper but adequate Nasa AIS III is around 115 then up from there into the cromar and digital yatch units which are in the 200-300 brackets.
there is a reason for the cost difference on the signal reception and frequency of receiving them.

here is a link to live ais map click on the uk area and it is like ant trails

Live Ships Map - AIS - Vessel Traffic and Positions

there is an app for ipad and iphone that you could use for AIS, I have never looked at this closely and know nowt about how it would work at sea

AIS Live - Live AIS Ship Tracking, accurately track your Ships movements

i have a echomax 305, for sale but i think it would be too big for your boat its about 700mm long and is a mast mount, but you would be seen for sure.

so first choice is both ! second Reflector and last AIS

(save ya pennies and get a radar later thats sorts you out good and propper)

what plotter do you have,
if you go with AIS just make sure the unit you choose is compatible, they mostly are but some aren't, (Nasa III to a Raymarine for instance)

hope it helps

Paul

[tilly]

Tron AIS TR-8000 - AIS - JOTRON

Go with quality Greame lad....

[Kev1n]

Graham

I like my boat toys and like you was wondering about AIS.
If you have radar, it will pick up big ship, the small boats without AIS, land and if you’re lucky even the buoys and pot markers in the fog and dark. You’re the one actively watching, and not relying on other vessels broadcasting their position or that they are keeping an eye on their systems for you.

Next on the shopping list would be a good passive radar reflector, then a toss-up between the AIS and/or active Radar Target Enhancer. The AIS receivers are good when you can set up alarms if other vessels are on a collision course with you or approach within a predefined distance.

If cash is no object then I’d have a class B transponder that sends and receives AIS so you’ll show up on radar and plotter with the benefit of having a back-up VHF antenna.
You already know that at distance the pulse returned from a RTE is much stronger than a radar echo from a passive reflector. The active radar systems help ships radar spot you at distance with enough time and space to alter course. Here’s the odd thing though. As the big ships get closer to you with their high output radar, the strength of their radar beam hitting and echoing from your passive reflector gets stronger but the signal strength from an active system only remains steady at whatever output it can manage. There reaches a point where as the ship with radar get closer to you the returns from the passive detector become as strong, then stronger than the active transmitters. As the ship gets even closer the passive signal continues gets even stronger so will continue to show up. Because radar will be receiving signals from all sorts of sea clutter this will be filtered out below a certain power – for a powerful system at some point this filtering threshold can be higher than the strength of the active transmission so it will vanish off the screen.

For small boats with low reflectors, radar can have weaker blind spots where the main beam and beam reflected off the surface of the sea interfere so the active reflector systems help to be spotted there. Unless the boat they are on is at the wrong angle, or rolling out of the plane of the radar transmission.

I’d be interested to hear what the experts think, someone who has worked on the bridge of bigger ships fitted with powerful radar? of the active versus passive systems. And I need to get out more; not long now and we'll see you out there - whatever the conditions.

[Graham B]

Thanks for all the replies lads,

I am still unsure which route to take though! As most of you's know I work on ships and am in the merchant navy. We use AIS all the time interfaced with our chart plotter and radars. It does make collision avoidance a whole lot easier. It is just knowing where to stop spending!
I think in the future all vessels will have to have AIS fitted with smaller craft and commercial vessels next on the list but that might be a while away yet even so I am leaning towards the AIS route even with the extra power drain? It will be the first topic of discussion as soon as I get home!

Graham.

[Micky_C]

Some of the iphone apps look good and they are a lot cheaper.

There also a few web pages,

Live Webcam ~ Mouth of Tyne