[Sbarc-list] AIS Vessel Tracking System in service

SBARC NOW SUPPORTS VESSEL TRACKING SYSTEM

A donation of equipment was received from the estate of Robert Block, K6LX, through the personal efforts of Mike Wapner, K6QD. This equipment is an Automatic Identification System (AIS). The AIS system is now 100% operational from our Mesa site and is Station 533 signing SBARC. The AIS system is now seeing ocean "targets" more than 100 nm from Santa Barbara. There are only two stations in our local SouthCoast area. A second AIS system is located at UCSB as Station 1325, signing UCSB.

A full tutorial of AIS is available on the internet which explains how this system is used in identifying Class A and Class B vessel traffic.

Start here:

http://www.marinetraffic.com

Have fun !

Bill Talanian