WOES - FURUNO CLASS B AIS TRANSPONDER FA-50
IMTECH, Cape town has been working on the Furuno AIS system for 3 days - costing us close to R15,000.00 in service fees. Still the AIS is not working properly the way is should. We can receive signals from other boats and can see them on the chart plotter. But we the transponder does not transmit our position - thus other boats cannot see us on their AIS system. In dangerous waters where one would encounter pirates, this is a good thing. But in safe waters, you certainly want other boats to see you on their AIS systems. This technician has blamed just about everything imaginable; "something wrong with the PC" (there we go again), "the USB ports are fucked up!", "the aerial cable is defective", "the Furuno AIS software is corrupt", etc. None of this proved to be true.
"Don't worry!" he tells me much later as he leaves, "It's now working! It takes awhile for the system to pick you up."
Well, 2 days later, and still no AIS transmission! This seems to be one hell of a slow system. By now another boat would have passed us 2 days ago and not even know about our existence!
Is it now time to start screaming and shouting perhaps!?
For you guys who do not know what AIS systems are;
It allows you to receive information about other ships in your area directly in your navigation software. Specific information such as; MMSI number, name of vessel, radio call sign, travel direction, speed, etc. are broadcast via VHF radio on vessels equipped with such a AIS system. Likewise, other vessels will also be able to see our information - all of this adds another layer to safety at sea. The bottom picture is a screen capture of navigation software with AIS enabled. One would click with the mouse button on one of the yellow or green triangles and a information window will pop up with that particular vessel's details. It is a great system if it works. In our current situation, we can see other vessels, but they cannot see us.
