Satellite Tracking of AIS signals, can this be a tracker solution ?

[brianb]

I erased 15 of the 19 messages in my PM box.....surprised it fills so quick.

 

[brianb]

This is a response to post from Matt B. explaining the costs of set up for tracking boats. For some reason Matt's forum response is not visible to me on the internet, so I sent him an email response and am placing this here:

Hello Matt,

I don't know why, but when I tried to read this message in the forum it did not work, in fact the message would not appear even though I got an email indicating the message existed.

Thanks for the response, the merging of a data stream with a web page display can be painful and I am surprised to find how manual it was in previous years. I am pursuing the transponder/AIS tracking scheme to determine the costs and feasibility. The club may or may not have an interest, that is up to management.

At least one service that has expressed an interest in providing service, and two that have not yet expressed an interest, provide a online view serice with a map of the region of coverage and vessels of interest. This service is an additional cost, yet to be stated by the vendor. If you are familiar with VesselTraffic their supplier, exactEarth, offers an online viewer: http://www.exactearth.com/products/exactais-viewer/ . This is one of several solutions that would require nothing more than boat names and MMSI numbers to be forwarded to the vendor. The user can then get a map online, similar to the Yellow Brick display.

Thanks for detailing the effort that has gone into past efforts. It was a view into what the club is up to that is not visible from the peanut gallery. I can appreciate the effort on your part, especially if hand entry was necessary !

I will attempt to post this response into the forum again.

 

[Philpott]

Thanks, Brian, for the research! I couldn't get the sample to download - but will call them and try again. The price is to be determined and might depend on the number of vessels maybe? And if commercial vessels are depending on this service it must cover the area of our interest: sf to Kauai. Recommendations from current users would be good, especially whether sailing clubs have used it. Would the SS want to offer its signature race to the company as a tryout? Would the SSS be willing to be a guinea pig? Perhaps the PAC Cup people have explored this issue as well? Who's running that race this year?

 

[brianb]

They are going to conduct a trial in about two weeks and for that I am trying to get a few MMSI numbers from any yachts on the bay that are willing to participate in the period of the test. VesselTraffic has not quoted a price for this purpose yet and want to conduct a test first. They do show some services with prices. Tracking one boat for a year costs ~~$350 per boat. They have annual fleet deals also. I was hoping they might do something like track a large fleet for $20. per boat over a 1 month period. Or for individual users maybe do a $100 per boat deal for a month or two. This is still an experiment as they are still enhancing their algorithms to discriminate multiple targets, especially in a crowded area. For example, within the Bay capturing a single Class B signal with so many other signals nearby would be a challenge. At sea, the problem is greatly diminished, especially along the sailing routes. I don't know if SSS has an interest, but I do just for my own vessel as I would rather not own a tracker and then also have to follow that with an AIS Class B purchase 12 months later. This type of service is going to only get better as the tracking schemes and satellites are launched. I am certain if we could file a freedom of information act with the NSA, and were successful, they could provide us accurate tracking data via OUR satellite net., and very sophisticated discrimination methods at their disposal (that we all payed for).