Dec 2009 Update

[Peter]

Interesting isn't it? I like the table so that you can see exactly what is happening and the route information. I assume that you put the HD coastline in yourself as we had to do in RB?
Look forward to trying it out in the fullness of time. I've got my own AIS receiver, ironically my old one gave up the ghost around 6 months ago and I delayed replacement for weeks before deciding that ShipTrax was still "pie in the sky" as regards a release date. I now run the Icom dual chanel and it is very good.
Hopefully it will be released at a sensible cost, the figure for contnued connection to the server after the 1st year was a bit of a shock, but there are alternatives to that!

Thanks

Peter

[tarbat]

I assume that you put the HD coastline in yourself as we had to do in RB?

Yes.  The standard coastline is a bit low-res for a ship-tracking application.  Hopefully that will be fixed in a later beta - the coastline requirements for ship-tracking are a lot more demanding than what you need for aircraft-tracking!!

[Johnn]

Hi, All
Any Idea of the max range we could get with this hardware?, What type of external antenna would need to be used for this?
Thanks

[Peter]

I use my 70cm / 2 m co-linear mounted on the gable end for my reception. I just swop connections for either marine reception or working with my 2 m / 70cm rig.
My normal sea range is around 50 miles, but bear in mind that I'm already 15 miles inland, so total 60 - 80 ish from here is the norm at this time of year. If there is a Springtime lift on, anything can happen! I've watched traffic in the Dover Straits, I've watched the Cunard and Fred Olsen cruise ships all the way from the Solent to 100 miles north of here when on their Norway destinations. I think that my record was 250 miles from the home QTH, but these lifts can decay quite rapidly as the temperature changes, so can easily be missed if you are not in to start with! Conversely there are some really grotty days, like today for instance, when I'm lucky to see 40 miles from here, i.e. 25 out to sea.
It is also interesting to note that there are a few berths that I cannot never see, despite picking up stuff much further out, much depends on conditions at any one time.

Peter