The cheapest way to get AIS
on your yacht

AIS information was previously only available to Vessel Traffic Management Centers and commercial ships.
Every ship of 300 GT. or over plus passenger vessels of any size, are required by the I.M.O., since December 2004, to operate a class-1 AIS transponder .
Prices for 'Class A' transponder systems are well over US$3000.-.
And 'Class B' transponders are priced up to US$2500. These are for non-SOLAS vessels eg. small fishing and pleasure vessels.
All these prices is definitely beyond the scope of this website.

There is a far cheaper option...

One option is to have a dedicated ais on the cheap with its own VHF antenna installed at around US$500.-
The picture on the right shows a dedicated Class B ais on the cheap connected to a laptop.
The use of an ais on the cheap with its own antenna, is a good idea, as it leaves your VHF radio available for scanning or comms.
The GPS connects directly to the unit, which plots your yacht in the center of it's rather small 5" screen.
It plots all the ships with AIS transponders, within your VHF range, at their GPS position.
You can connect the ais on the cheap to your laptop RS-232 comport, to give you a lot bigger screen.
A pentium-3 PC or faster is recommended for this system.
Unfortunately most modern laptops do not have an Rs232 port anymore.
An out-of-the-box 'Rs232 to USB' converter does not work, as the driver is not compatible with the incoming AIS/NMEA data.     It needs to be a comport.
The cost of a dedicated ais on the cheap, is also beyond the scope of this website.
There is a much cheaper way........

Your VHF radio needs a special audio filter added, in order to distinguish the AIS data on frequencies 161.975 and 162.025 MHz.
Try it for yourself, listen to VHF ch 87 or 88 . All you can hear is background noise, nothing that resembles data of any kind. Yet there is lots.
Depending on available internal space of your radio, a chassis socket or a pigtail is installed as output.
Be assured that you can use your radio just like before the installation.
While you are using the VHF for AIS reception, you cannot use it for scanning or comms and vice versa.
The good news is that you can use virtually any Pentium3 laptop, irrespective of whether it has comports or not, as long as it has a 'Line-in' or a 'Microphone-in' socket.
The sound-card must be able to handle a 48 Kb sampling rate.
The audio connection lead (1.5m long) between the VHF and laptop is provided.
The software on the dvd includes: Ais display - , chart making - , Manuals, NZ-chart catalogue + all charts for New Zealand, + coverage from Australia to Tahiti and the Pacific Islands to Antarctica + dozens of handy utilities.
The best news is that AIS over VHF is a lot more economical than a radar system not only in power consumption but financially also and gives a clutter free screen.
The most COST effective way is wired, like the picture, bottom right.
NZ Post provides an economical service (Parcel_Post) in New Zealand and parcels are automatically insured.
The installation price is NZ$125.-, if done by one of our technicians, this price includes postage back to your address in NZ.
After Prior arrangement, you send the radio by Tracked ParcelPost to AISonVHF in Tauranga, we do the modification, turnaround is usually within 7 days.
However if you wish to install the filter yourself, it is just NZ$97.- incl. (About US$70) postage worldwide.
We accept Credit Cards, Paypal, Bank Transfer, NZ cheque.

Installing the filter yourself?
You will receive:
AIS filter
Line/chassis socket
DVD
Audio connection lead
Comprehensive instructions

DIY involves soldering the filter to the vhf circuit board, installing the chassis socket and making the internal connections. It may sound rather daunting, but is really easy to do.

In order to supply you with the correct filter and IC soldering information, we need to know the VHF brand and type and if possible it's approx age.