Vhf with AIS and DSC

[abbyfireguy]

Hope I am getting the terminology right. I have a descent Icom VHF in the boat wired into my GPS to have the DSC function. Is there now a AIS function on Vhf radios that hook into a Lowrance HDS 5 Chartplotter/ sounder?
What would I need to make both AIS and DSC function?

 

[Hookin'up]

All you need is a vhf capable of ais and it wires in the same way via the nmea
Look at the GX2150AIS+ pretty cool to overlay all the commercial traffic right on your hds
Great unit


Sent from my rotary phone using tapacrap!

 

[Canso]

NMEA
In basic terms: AIS is the "transmit wire", DSC is the "receive wire" and ground works for both.

If it's DSC only, the radio will only have 2 wires "receive wire" and ground wire

 

[Saxe Point]

You can purchase stand alone AIS receivers fairly inexpensively and they are very easily connected to most GPS chart plotters. I have one and it's excellent. Receives AIS signals from ships many miles away and displays all the detailed AIS data on your chart plotter. It also has adjustable proximity alarms that are really useful.

 

[abbyfireguy]

Sweet,,,you guys are costing me more money.. LOL!!

 

[TenMile]

I had the 2150 connected to my HDS 8/10 and it was great. The AIS would overlay and you could even tell it to predict the course of the vessels for the next 15 or 30 minutes to let you know if you were in their way. Pretty cool. You can see the big Commercial boats or any smaller boats with a Class-B transponder from 20+ miles away.

One thing you may want to check with the HDS 5 units is that I think they may only have one NMEA 0183 Com port. I may be wrong here, as I've not owned an HDS 5 but I believe it can only transmit OR receive NMEA 0183 not both at the same time. That means you can EITHER send your GPS info to the radio OR receive AIS from the radio but I don't believe both. Again, worth a read.

That said -- fi that is true, there are two options. Standard Horizon has a newer model of the same radio called the 2200 that has the GPS built into it so it doesn't need to get GPS data from your chartplotter. It would just send AIS to be displayed.

OR, Lowrance makes a VHF that has a NMEA 2000 interface. NMEA 2000 is more along the lines of Ethernet and can send/receive simultaneously and is much easier to connect than the bare-wire systems.

 

[abbyfireguy]

Will check them out , gotta do something with all my spare time after retiring a week ago!

 

[Saxe Point]

Why buy a new VHF radio if you've got a good one already? The Standard Horizon GX2200 is $450. Just get an AIS receiver for half that amount or less. Attach it to your chart plotter and the smallest cheapest antenna you can find and you'll be good to go and save some decent money.

 

[Saxe Point]

http://radioworld.ca/5000-p-5543.html

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/em-trak-marine-electronics--ais-dual-channel-receiver--12333969

A couple of examples.

 

[Saxe Point]

I use this antenna with my AIS receiver and it works great:

http://ca.binnacle.com/Electronics-...LIFLEX-1ft-VHF(2.4db)-P6106/product_info.html

 

[abbyfireguy]

My 7 year old Icom is starting to show its age. Rather than just getting by with an older radio I thought if updating ,to get AIS as well.
I am very used to the Icom,but their new ones don't have a NMEA 2000 connection which would make installation almost idiot proof(almost)! LOL...
I like the Standard Horizon 2200 but the Lowrance Link 8 and Simrad radios are also pretty nice..
I would rather just replace the radio with a new updated one that works 100% and not add another item to my very limited cockpit dash area. I am not as fortunate as some of you folks with huge wheelhouse areas with tons of space..

 

[Saxe Point]

If your radio is older, I'd spring for one of the new ones with AIS receive capability. But the AIS receivers I linked are very small and are designed to be mounted anywhere and especially not on the dash.

 

[abbyfireguy]

Radio is older and having frequent reliability issues.
I pulled the pin and bought a Lowrance Link 8. Now all I have to do is install it and get it up and running.

 

[TenMile]

Simple job to do. Depending upon the age of your existing antenna, you may want to consider replacing it. The internals eventually start to corrode and get jostled around from the swells. The corrosion will start to limit their range until they eventually stop working. If it's > 5 years old, I'd consider just swapping it out and/or keep it along with your old VHF as a backup.

 

[abbyfireguy]

I was thinking about replacing the antenna. Bought one today. May as well have a good quality signal.

 

[finaddict]

NMEA
In basic terms: AIS is the "transmit wire", DSC is the "receive wire" and ground works for both.

If it's DSC only, the radio will only have 2 wires "receive wire" and ground wire

Are you talking NMEA 0182 or NMEA 2K? I would be surprised if AIS capability through NMEA 0182 has been engineered into any new VHF radio. NMEA 0182 is an older network design that predates AIS by years.

 

[finaddict]

Radio is older and having frequent reliability issues.
I pulled the pin and bought a Lowrance Link 8. Now all I have to do is install it and get it up and running.

Good choice. I have this one as well. Connecting via NMEA 2K is simple and will overlay the AIS information on your plotter screen. Scroll over the triangle, hit "Info" and then "details" and all the information about that ship is listed on your screen. Ship name, size, type, direction, destination, course, speed and many other details.

 

[TenMile]

Are you talking NMEA 0182 or NMEA 2K? I would be surprised if AIS capability through NMEA 0182 has been engineered into any new VHF radio. NMEA 0182 is an older network design that predates AIS by years.

Yep. That Standard Horizon radio doesn't have N2K -- only 0182 to connect to a chartplotter. It's 1970's era technology -- have to select the Com port, and event the correct BAUD rate, find the correct Tx and Rx wires for each manufacturer's product. Yuck! Why they don't all use Ethernet is beyond me. Simple, fast, standards based, reliable and cheap! The marine electronics industry have lagged the technology industry for years trying to lock their clients into proprietary technologies, interfaces and cables. It took Garmin to enter the market to shake them all up.