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Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 5:57 pm
by VK2GEL
Gday,

I am looking for radio enthusiasts with access to sites near the coast in WA to receive and share ship position info using the VHF AIS system. It can be done with a scanner/ham/marine rig http://www.discriminator.nl/index-en.html with software http://www.coaa.co.uk/shipplotter.htm or right up to an unattended dedicated receiver direct to the net without a PC.

Please have a look at the links on http://www.qrz.com/db/vk2gel and the recent Silicon Chip article http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_111517/article.html

Ideal locations would be near any of the big ports. The NW WA coast apparently experiences tropospheric ducting over long ranges which would be a plus.

Regards, Grant. VK2GEL.

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 7:05 pm
by Radzeck
Hi Grant

I'm situated near Albany WA,and have tried this for the last two months and only received 3 ships. :(
The ships only seem to turn on there AIS beacons when they come into the harbor.

As for sharing on the net, I'm only on dialup and not connected very often.

73's.....Derek

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 7:40 pm
by VK2GEL
Gday Derek,

AFAIK ships over 300t are required to have their beacons on all the time.

Please tell me about your set up and I might be able to help. G.

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:10 am
by robbage
My work location is a few metres from Gage Roads but no internet connection :(

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:12 pm
by Radzeck
Hi Grant

Have given up for the time being as we only get about one ship per. week into port,
My antenna was broken by a tree falling in a storm last week #-o

Might have a go in summer with the grain ships coming to port.
My setup seems to work OK other than the Antenna.

73's....Derek

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 7:31 pm
by meg
This is fascinating!

I'd love to get involved but we're nowhere near the coast.

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 7:32 pm
by Nafenn
meg wrote:This is fascinating!

I'd love to get involved but we're nowhere near the coast.
long distance reporting?

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 7:36 pm
by robbage
meg wrote:This is fascinating!

I'd love to get involved but we're nowhere near the coast.
There's bound to be ships of the desert up your way :-)
It is interesting though.. kinda fits in with APRS and ACARS.

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 9:01 am
by Blinky
After reading the postings, plus after a friend just a little north of Perth had been mentioning a bit as he was running Shipplotter again, I decided to install it and have a look. I had been meaning to for a while.

It's just not viable to continue. Had it running all day yesterday and apart from watching one cargo ship leave port early am, one single transmission all day and another ship enter port very early this morning thats been the summary of day one.

Day 2, I expect will be worse. There will be no day 3 I suspect.

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 9:18 am
by Radzeck
I've watched ships come and go from Alb port, but unless there is more than one ship they don't broadcast AIS info. :?
Maybe its a security issue (Terrorist, etc) Don't know.

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:32 am
by VK2GEL
Thanks for trying guys, really need users near the big WA ports.

Here's what's happening near Sydney http://aprs.fi/?lat=-33&lng=154&mt=m&z=8&timerange=3600

and Brisbane http://aprs.fi/?lat=-27&lng=155&mt=m&z=8&timerange=3600

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 5:18 pm
by robbage
I monitored 161.975 and 162.025 all day yesterday in Swanbourne and didn't get a hit. I can see large boats and ships moving from my workshop. :smt102

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 5:29 pm
by Radzeck
robbage wrote:I monitored 161.975 and 162.025 all day yesterday in Swanbourne and didn't get a hit. I can see large boats and ships moving from my workshop. :smt102
It only sounds like a burst of noise about 1 sec long.

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 5:34 pm
by VK2GEL
Yes it's only a click and you need to have the squelch off at least at first. Make sure you have FM selected.

Re: Ship position receiving and sharing

Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 5:52 pm
by Blinky
VK2GEL wrote:Yes it's only a click and you need to have the squelch off at least at first. Make sure you have FM selected.
and not be scanning between the 2 frequencies as that would probably miss the burst of data.