Raymarine Active AIS

Raymarine has finally bitten the AIS bullet, and introduced an AIS class B transceiver.

 Not to be confused with the nightmare of ATIS, AIS is an automated communication system that allows anyone with the right equipment to exchange details of their position, course, speed, and rate of turn with any other similarly-equipped vessel that happens to be within range. Incoming data can be displayed either as a list of names and numbers (which is rather pointless) or in graphic form on a radar or chart plotter screen – where it is really useful.

 Raymarine’s first tentative venture into AIS was a receive-only unit called the AIS 250. The trouble with receive-only AIS is that it’s a bit like riding a bicycle without lights – it assumes that it’s OK for other people not to see you, so long as you can see them! But Raymarine – discouraged, perhaps by the American authorities’ reluctance to approve small craft AIS – were certainly not the only company to hang back from introducing a two-way AIS transceiver.

 It’s quite possible to pick up a Class B transceiver (or “transponder” as they are often called) for about £500, so the £1051.63 list price of Raymarine’s new AIS500  looks pretty steep. But it does include its own GPS, and has an integral antenna splitter and NMEA multiplexer – allowing it to share an existing aerial with the VHF radio, and to send, receive, and pass on NMEA data to and from other instruments. And it goes without saying that for anyone with existing Raymarine A, C, E, or G systems, setting it up should be a doddle.

www.raymarine.com