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we're gonna get started on today's we're  going to talk about a is so what does  the first thing is to ask ourselves is  what does a is stands for automatic  identification system just a little bit  for context everyone in the room some of  you might know us some of you might not  I'm Jeff Cote with Pacific yacht systems  and I'm an owner operator of a marine  electrical electronic company here in  Vancouver and also Sunshine Coast and  now Vancouver Island and our main focus  is strictly electrical and electronics  for marine so we have about a dozen of  us on the team and today what I'm doing  is I'm sharing our collective experience  of working on all your fellow boaters  boats so last year we did about 750  boats that we worked on and what I'm  trying to share with everyone or what  are the benefits and why are some other  boaters or fellow boaters taking on a is  on their boat and why are they doing it  and what are the benefits and what are  some of the products you can consider  for your own boat alright so first thing  I mean the big takeaways from the  presentation are gonna be for me is you  know at the end of the presentation you  should ask yourself how does a is  improve myself vessel safety so that  should be one of the points that we want  to cover in this presentation the next  one is you know what about the location  of NAIS antenna do I need one do I use a  VHF antenna do I buy a splitter we're  going to talk about that also talk about  if you can use a VHF antenna for a is  [Music]  maybe talk a little bit about EMI but  we're gonna dabble into that a little  bit first things what's the purpose and  why are people talking about is for for  boats I mean ultimately the real purpose  if you want to say in a nutshell is to  really it's for safety it's about  positional awareness of your boat and  other people's boat that can be seen on  a display we'll talk about the different  sort of displays but it's really about  sharing information of where your boat  is its current location and where it's  going between all boats so everyone's  aware of where one is  the water so it's vessel the vessel  vessel to shore and it's a period it's  it's a broadcast of information but not  a continuous stream of information  meaning depending on the type of  transponder you have on your boat  there's different frequencies so you  might be updating every three minutes  six minutes it's not constantly saying  Here I am I'm here I'm here I'm here  right so this information is there but  it's not unlike your site your site is  constantly giving you feedback where  someone is you know the speed of light  travels instantly for what we notice and  so you're always being updated on where  someone is but with a is is giving you a  sample otherwise your the the VHF  frequencies would be too cluttered so  it's telling you where a vote is every  three minutes and eventually with that  information you can figure where the  vote is gonna be but it's not going to  tell you where it was every second  because otherwise there's just be simply  too much voting information on the app  so one example of that is someone who  turns on their ais receiver and  instantly looks an app on their phone  and wonder why they're a is vessel is  not on the on the app well it's not the  moment you turn it on it takes a while  before we broadcast a ship station or  Shore station is gonna pick it up send  it to the Internet you're gonna connect  to the internet on your app and then  you're gonna see this vessel so you got  to give it a little bit of time it's not  real time radar would be the opposite  radars in real time when the one sweep  happens it tells you every time where  that boat is every suite so what are you  gonna see with AIS  you're gonna see surrounding traffic  you're gonna see local commercial  traffic so you're in British Columbia  the things that you're gonna see are  gonna be all the freighters most  tugboats are gonna be using it a lot of  trawlers fishing trawlers are going to  be using it and you're gonna be seeing a  lot of information like what's the boat  name where's the boat some of them even  take the time to actually enter where  they're going what's their speed on  ground what's the length of the boat the  width of the boat the speed of the boat  all that information is  sent over VHF frequencies within a  subset of VHF and we'll talk about that  a little bit later and that information  is appearing on your boat there's  different ways of harnessing or getting  that information and we'll talk about  that a little bit later but you're  getting all that over the air so what  that means is you could literally be in  the middle of the Pacific Ocean the  farthest point from land on earth have  no internet connectivity though  everything has fallen there is nothing  left on earth and two ships will be able  to communicate directly via VHF  frequencies so it's not dependent on  going back to land to come back to your  boat its boat to boat there's no central  governing body that's filtering the  information processing the information  your boat is listening to all other  boats like a VHF and it's also sending  to all other boats that have a VA is  receiver so it's in any to any which is  great because that means that you could  be on the Central Coast where you know  VHF reception is not that great or  Internet's that reception is not that  great you know places in the browns or  princess luisa or in a pass going up  Seymour's pass or it could be any pass  and any boat that has an AIS transponder  that's actually broadcasting their  location and their direction is gonna  actually appear on your AIS receiver so  ultimately they are and we'll talk about  that a little bit I want to kind of go  into it there are boats that are  required to have a is those are called  Class A AIS systems or transponders and  those boats don't have a choice to have  them on and they do and they're always  turned on and that's why when you look  at an AIS app on your phone you can  actually see all these commercial  vessels that are showing up on your app  this year for Christmas spent my time on  the boat at Christmas in the Gulf  Islands and up in the channels between  Valdez and Thetis Island and  the secretary Islands there's a lot of  commercial ships that are actually just  anchored great place right it's  protected relatively shallow and I was  like looking at all these ships and I  was like oh my god these ships are huge  how big are they where are they from  what are their names so even at a  distance as it was coming through  Gabriel pass I could see them at a  distance I was like I wonder how many  there are and with my line of sight I  could only see two but on my eye is I  could actually see seven of them because  VHF is more than line-of-sight right  VHF will work over mountains radar is  only line-of-sight it can only see what  it sees if it's behind an island like  for example active pass you cannot see  on the other side of active pass on  either side of it right you can only see  but with AIS for example when I light up  a is on my own boat and I'm in Pender  Harbour  I can see ferries or a BC ferry leaving  psaltery Bay either power river to  Sunshine Coast you'll you'll don't see  the ferry but you can actually see the  ferry BC Ferries on your chart plotter  and the other thing that's really handy  but you have to be careful is this  feature called collision alarm so if the  AAS knows your speed and knows your  course on ground and this is speed on  ground course on ground and it knows  another vessel speed on ground and  course on ground it can predict a  collision within a certain amount of  time in seven minutes  if both boats do not change course do  not change speed you will collide with  that boat and as an if you have an AIS  on board you can say by the way I want  you to give me a 20-minute window a  10-minute window a five-minute window of  an imminent collision now if you have  that feature enabled in the river for  example that your AIS will beep non-stop  because the is does not understand that  you're in a body of water that is only  40 meters wide and there are freighters  coming at you from all directions all  the time and they think you're going to  be in an image collision they don't  understand that you're in a river and  there's commercial traffic coming right  beside you so you're going to be  constantly disability building day is  alarm because it's going to be saying oh  my god collision alert collision alert  you're within so much proximity of a  huge freighter that's coming down the  South our South arm of the Fraser so at  one point what you have to be careful  about is not disabling the alarms all  the time so in the river or if you're in  a port or in False Creek for example you  turn up an AIS system there's tons of  vessels that leave there is on all the  time so if you you're you're I don't  know more than keysight marina there's  probably seven or eight boats in that  marina that have there is all the time  so you might get false alarms so you  want to make sure that you turn your is  on when you need it and maybe disable it  when you're at an anchor or you're in  the South algorithm Fraser because  you're gonna have too many false  positives or false negatives so this is  sort of a little bit of a diagram to  show really what it comes down to for  the most part when you're on in the  water you really care about ship to ship  and that's all that matters sort of a  little bit of what I was talking about  earlier this any to any phenomenon right  you don't need anybody else to be  broadcasting this information like you  can actually talk VHF to VHF in the  Browns without having even a nearby  coastguard station to receive the signal  but if you do have or in reception of a  shore base VHF station like a Coast  Guard and they see your boat they're  gonna take that information send it over  the internet and then you can then look  on an app and look where that boat is so  you could actually confirm that your  boat is in that location  I have owners or boat owners that have  multiple partners of a boat and they're  sometimes there's wondering Oh where's  my partner where are they in desolation  SAP are they coming back are they on  schedule are they safely at their  destination that they make it to preeto  are they in the discovery Islands and  they can simply log in and they don't  have to call they don't have to ask they  just go AIS they look oh yeah the boats  in Credo Haven all's good so it's a way  for other people if you choose to see  your location obviously there's a silent  mode meaning you can actually go  incognito and say I actually want to  receive all a is infirm  but for some reason I don't want to  transmit it  we did a aya systems for a mining  company that was actually in the Congo  and they wanted to receive it but they  didn't want to know where they were  because there were some risks for other  people that know that they were coming  down the river and so they would disable  or enable the AIS transponder at will  and so that's a feature on some devices  as well that you can actually turn it on  and turn it off depending so a little  bit earlier I mentioned that there's  really two types of AIS systems for all  of us unless you're a commercial boat  operator and you use and you've got a  huge freighter or whatnot but if you  have a recreational vessel either  powerboat or sailboat you're gonna be  and you decide to have a is onboard and  you want to have a transponder you're  gonna be having what's called a Class B  transponder so you're not required to  have one but you choose to have one a  receiver doesn't matter a receiver is a  receiver it will always receive Class A  or Class B and listen to all sorts of  vessels but when you choose to buy one  that actually tells other boaters where  you are where you're going your boat  name and all that for us here in the  recreational market you're going to be  looking at a Class B device about five  six seven maybe about six years ago a  VHF manufacturer called standard horizon  came out with a a is receive only VHF  radio it was called the matrix 2100 and  that was probably the first affordable  product for a is for reeker tional  boaters I have one on my boat and that  was about four hundred four hundred and  fifty dollars for a VHF with a built in  a is receiver so it was really handy you  could actually see a is target's  directly on the radio you could connect  that a is that radio to your chart  plotter  and on your chart plotter you would see  all these targets light up so for give  you an example I can be lining up a is  and I can be in captain's Cove South arm  of the Frazer and ladder and I will see  targets in the Gulf Islands targets tons  of commercial traffic in Burrard Inlet  I'll see the ferries leave how sound off  of Horseshoe Bay so that's sort of be  pretty big reach we're talking 20 30 40  nautical miles of reach over VHF  frequencies on a boat in Ladner  receiving all that information overlaid  on top of your chart plotter and that's  handy because as you're going through  for example and maybe if you're in a  powerboat a sailboat you're not going  all that fast anyway so you can't really  modify your speed you're going from dead  slow to dead slow anyways but for power  boaters you might be deciding to when  are you're gonna go through a pass an  active pass you might be seeing a ferry  come in from the other side and you're  like you know what I'm just gonna wait  it out like if I wait three minutes  there's gonna be no ferry in the past  and I can go how I want to go so you can  make decisions same things with dawn  arrows coming up from de Courcey we were  there for two days before New Year's and  coming up to Nanaimo and I wanted to see  is there any commercial traffic on the  other sides of dawn arrows that are  gonna be towing log booms from Nanaimo  down in the Gulf Islands well radar  would never tell me what's on the other  side of dawn arrows because dawn arrows  is kind of like an S bent I can't see  the other side it's not like poorly a  pass so how do you know well looking at  an AIS receiver I can see if there's  commercial traffic on the other side I  can see if they're just waiting if  they're coming in for the pass and then  I can decide oh you have no problem we  can go in through the pass there's no  other boats on the other side because  dog narrows I'm not sure for some of you  not familiar it's a pretty very  constricted very tight passage probably  one of the smallest ones here on the  coast with maybe Princess Louisa being a  close second so you know taking that  information that's really useful  [Music]  so a is is a specific frequency range  within a VHF range so what does that  mean is VHF is a large range of  frequencies AIS is a specific range  within that VHF range meaning you can  first of all buy an a is only antenna  what would that mean it would be an  antenna that does only those two  frequencies and is built for those two  frequencies alone so you can have an AIS  antenna obviously working off and  feeding an AIS receiver a transponder  you can have a VHF antenna working and  feeding an AIS receiver transponder but  the corollary is not true you cannot  have an AIS antenna work on a VHF radio  because the VHF radio is using a larger  range the is is working a subset of that  range so before I go in into choosing a  little bit because we're gonna talk  about splitters do I buy one or not  first thing is there are certain  inherent limitation about a is at the  end of the day it's similar radio  reception to a VHF so for example when I  was on the outside of Vancouver Island  and I was north of Brooks Peninsula  south of cahuachi no sound there was  practically no VHF resident reception on  where I was there are certain places  where you just simply don't have good  wrist VHF reception if you have no good  VHF reception you're not gonna see a is  target's on your chart plotter because  simply the limitation remember this is  not satellite you know the information  is not going up into the air coming back  down at you it's going line-of-sight my  new VHF does allow for certain  curvatures it will go over relatively  not too high mountains right you can go  over the Gulf Islands they're rather  pretty low profile but it's not gonna be  you're not going to be in Princess  Louisa surrounded and basically the  version of San Andreo  you know 2,000 meter cliffs around you  get great VHF reception and you're not  gonna be seeing votes in the street of  Georgia in princess luisa so know the  limitations right it's about VHF and  then generally in open water is around  twenty to thirty miles and it all  depends on the height of the antenna  right that's why cell voters choose to  mount their VHF antenna on the top of  the mast  it's the curvature of the earth you know  I was just not too long ago a month ago  I was in Jena India and ice always  ceases Tim never ceases amaze me as you  look you can't even see Vancouver from  Jedidiah but you can see the top of  Baker and Baker is only about half the  height it is so Oliv and Coover and  that's not that far that's only 50  nautical miles there's no buildings even  if you're with binoculars it's not the  question if you can't see it with you  could have the most high-powered  binoculars you want the curvature of the  nerves is enough that all the  skyscrapers in Vancouver are gone you  can't even see Burnaby see part of  Burnaby in the end some of the  high-rises and then Baker is gonna be in  the background so with that in mind  think about generally that what they're  expecting is they're expecting a AIS to  go about 20 to 30 miles reach on open  water because of the curvature of the  earth okay and also because the Class B  transponder doesn't use as much power  the reach of a Class B transponder is  gonna be even less than that so that's  why when you're in open water and your  radar might be able see further  depending on the height and where your  antennas located you're not gonna see  Class B transponders a hundred miles  away from one another you might be able  to talk to one another the SSB right or  you might have satellite connection to  one another via phone and you know each  other's coordinates but you might not be  able to see one another  [Music]  so one of the first dilemmas installing  an EIS system or thinking about an AI  system on your boat is gonna be do I  reuse my existing VHF antenna that I  already have because most of us should  have a VHF antenna on our boat if you  don't you should get that before you buy  an AIS system and know a portable  handheld VHF radio is not sufficient and  so then the question you're gonna ask is  I want to have an AIS in 10 as high as  possible but on some both like for  example a sailboat it's pretty  complicated where are you going to mount  that second AIS antenna you can't put it  parallel or right beside the VHF antenna  there has to be certain amount of  vertical distance or horizontal  separation between two VHF antennas and  so on a sailboat what most owners end up  doing they choose a compromise and they  say okay I'm gonna have an AIS antenna  top of my masts and what I'm gonna use  is a splitter and that's an image of a  splitter but it's not just simply a  passive lidar it's an active filter  splitter which means it's powered and so  it minimizes the loss because whenever  you take something and you separate it  you're gonna have some loss so it's  powered and it's amplified so you don't  lose too much of the signal and so  you're gonna have VHF antenna going to  the top of the masts then one cable is  gonna go to your VHF radio another cable  is gonna go to your AIS transponder  receiver and another cable might go to  your FM AM radio  so one antenna does three things so  that's one way to do it on power borders  that have an arch right or simply two  sides of the cabin you'll see generally  a lot of times you'll see those boats  have two VHF radios one lower helm one  upper helm and they'll put an antenna on  the starboard side and antenna on the  port side or they're gonna have a single  VHF antenna a MF antenna on the other  side and they have a single VHF with a  dual station you know an icon remote mic  and so that's easy then what we end up  doing is installing a dedicated is  antenna on the opposite side of the VHF  antenna  and so naturally certainly the best  antenna for your boat is a dedicated AIS  antenna because it's going to be built  for a purpose you can use a VHF antenna  to do it but it's not going to be as  good as a dedicated now honestly I would  say it's probably 5050 some people are  ok with a compromise because the cost of  an additional antenna running the cable  everything else  so what owners or boat owners are doing  is they're saying I'm gonna live with  what I have I'm not it's not the best of  everything but I'll buy an active  splitter and that's about I can't  remember about $300 that splitter and  I'm gonna use the existing antenna that  I have and I'll split it to three places  or at least to my VHF and my AAS  transponder or receiver so this is a  sort I kind of brought that up a little  bit earlier I said what sort of  information you're gonna see on this a  is what are the you know it's sort of  like a business card you know you're  sharing business card between different  boat owners and you're doing it over the  air like what's your what's your MMSI  right that's sort of like a social  insurance number for a boat it's a  special unique identifier for a boat  there's no two other boats that have the  same number you're gonna have your  vessel name your that's a little tight  by the length of it the width of it the  speed the course on ground you're gonna  see maybe 2030 parameters depending on  Class A or Class B and then that  information you can actually click on  that vessel I want to see that vessel  and tell me all the information of that  vessel and then when it's time to  actually contact that vessel maybe you  want to communicate something with that  vessel say by the way we're on a  collision I'm gonna do this you know  it's a big ship they're gonna do what  they're doing anyways so you just let  him know and I'm gonna be out go out of  your way or something you can actually  contact that vessel and know what it's  call sign is so you're not saying a big  black bone over there south of me 20  mile all this information is irrelevant  they don't know big you need to know  what's the boat name you know where are  they going like their call sign and then  that way someone in the bridge is gonna  be like able to respond instead  trying to who are you talking to the VHF  right it's an any - everybody's  listening to VHF so they don't know when  you're calling that you're calling for  them on modern sharp laughter's some  companies now are allowing you to  directly click on a target and they'll  initiate a call on your VHF to that  target so they'll set up a private  channel between the two and they'll ring  the other boat on VHF and I'll say right  away that's kind of pretty sophisticated  most of us are not going to do that but  that's one of the features of some of  the latest and greatest navigation  systems integrated with the AIS  transponders built into this play the  other thing that's really important and  some people think that does it matter it  well if you've got a boat that's one  feet by one feet by one feet or a  bathtub that's three feet by two feet  the location of your GPS antenna is  irrelevant in that boat the a it's  within the margin of error of GPS  accuracy but if you're starting to be  have a bigger boat and a fifty sixty  forty hundred ninety 145 foot boat  they're they're trying to predict if  there's going to be a collision and if  the antenna is at the back of the boat  or the front of the boat that's going to  make a big difference so when you're  actually setting up an AIS system on  your boat you've got to say where is  that GPS antenna because they want to  figure out if the two boats remember  it's not two GPS antennas they're going  to need to hit it's two boats the boats  are bigger than the GPS antennas so it's  absolutely essential to take the time to  enter those values in because otherwise  you might cause a collision or if you  enter inaccurate numbers you might have  a collision because you've  underestimated your boat or you said  that your boat started at the end when  it started in the beginning and so then  a collision that on the screen is not  going to happen actually happens in real  life the bigger the boat the more  important it is absolutely okay  when you're dealing with AIS and you're  trying to get a lot of information  you've got to be careful about EMI  electromagnetic interference and it's  going to be more prevalent than on VHF  your VHF might step be staticky but  remember all this data digital data is  not transmitted more than just voice on  this line and so there are certain  things that you've got to be careful in  that I've seen boats where they live  with the VHF crackling but when they in  Sullivan AE is that's actually limiting  the input of the information because now  the EMI is affecting the ass information  sent over VHF so sometimes rarely but  sometimes we encounter boats where you  know the VHF they could live with it not  working great but now that the AIS is on  board it's actually not working properly  because the is can't tolerate all this  EMI on the line so you've got to just be  cognizant when you're running a VHF line  what is running parallel to that VHF  line right because you can have some  interference related to that yes  no it's about other conductors the  question is if there's any difference  between a lumen or plastic boat the real  issue is other conductors other cables  right being electronics or inverter wine  that are running parallel to your VHF  right as much as possible you would  never want to put a VHF coaxial cable in  a bundle running beside an inverter line  you know you want to run always  perpendicular as much as possible given  a choice  I know it's limited in a boat you can't  do always what you want but try to avoid  these problems if you are having these  problems and these are some ways to do  that this is kind of like the tips and  tricks by the way this presentation is  going to be posted on our website under  the media under a PDF I sometimes go a  little bit more detail in some of the  sections but if you're having my  problems and only about 5% or maybe 10%  of you would this would be some way on  your boat kind of tips and tricks on how  to identify the problem isolated and  maybe then rectify it all right so  there's multiple AIS transponders out  there and there's a lot of companies  that do it first of all it's sort of  like a VHF you know you can buy a VHF  radio from icon from standard horizon  uniden and then you can buy one from  Garmin from Ray Marine I don't think for  uno makes one Simrad makes one you can  buy our VHF radio from many  manufacturers when I get asked by other  boaters and they say Jeff what's the  best VHF radio you can buy what I always  recommend to other boaters is first of  all you should buy a product where the  company's sole purpose is doing that  device so meaning if it's time for me to  buy a VHF radio I'm gonna buy a VHF  radio from a company that does VHF and I  calm and standardized ins main purpose  in life everyone in that company  top-down does VHF you might think that  it's smart for you to buy a VHF for a  marine because you have a Raymarine  sharp water  but nobody knows VHF better than I calm  our standard rising because that's their  sole purpose in life is to make VHF  radios and with that line of thought  when it comes to an AIS transponder my  recommendation is to buy an AIS  transponder from the companies whose  sole purpose is to do AIS and so there's  multiple companies that do that there's  even one in Vancouver that does it as  well and there are companies out there  that actually focus solely on doing AIS  transponders and receivers that's all  they do that's what they wake up in the  morning they think about that's what  they do every day night in day in day  out so when you're purchasing one of  those devices I encourage you to buy  from a company that does it that's it  and you'll get much better value better  support and they understand the details  or the intricacies of actually doing an  a as transponder so one of the really  popular is in the one I have on my boat  now is Vesper and here's why I like it  it comes with really three different  things and I'll talk about some of the  different choices first of all is  collision avoidance right I mean or cool  evasion prevention so that's where the  transponders are actually sending  information to one another you're  receiving that information you can  decide how big of a circle you want a 20  minute warning a 5 minute warning what  is it that you want you want silent non  silent you can decide all these  parameters because you know open water  you're gonna put yourself a bigger  bubble maybe in tighter quarters you're  like I'm on the bridge I've got good  visibility you know go silent I'm in the  river there's gonna be ships that are  gonna be looking like they're gonna  collide with me all the time but it's  not our fault because we're just  following the river so that's really  good the other thing too that they have  built in which I really like because  remember an AIS transponder has to have  a built in Jeep not a built in has to  have its own dedicated GPS that's the  code these devices have really low power  requirements a power draw  so most boat owners leave them on all  the time they're drawing point 2 amps  point 1 apps your light button halogen  light bulb on your boat is drawing two  amps a chartplotter is 3 amps if you  turn on the radar it's another 5  ten apps this is point one point two  it's the amount of power then it takes  to draw an LED anchor light so you leave  it on for 24 hours you're gonna draw  four amp hours five amp hours this is  very small power draw and with that  power draw what you can get is all the  CIS information and because it has a  jeep built-in GPS you can actually have  an anchor watch meaning you can show if  you're dragging anchor right because  it's constantly monitoring your location  as a function of the point that you drop  the anchor at and the other thing too is  even has a Man Overboard  that function so those would be the  three reasons why you would consider  Vesper these are sort of Vesper came out  and I think it was about this fall they  were in our office and they were showing  they also have this thing now where  they're actually this is and they want  actually best of show here at the  Vancouver Boat Show best electronic a is  system best electronic system in the  Vancouver Boat Show was the Vesper that  I'm going to show you next slide the XP  8000 so it takes all this information  from your boat like your speed on ground  your your wind and Decatur's anything  that's digital over NMEA on my boat it's  even see talk but you can convert sea  talk to enemy in two thousand will take  all that information depth wind speed  whatever takes it and then it will take  it and it will act as a gateway it will  then propagated over a localized Wi-Fi  network and if you have an android watch  that android watch will actually show  you literally on your watch wind speed  your anchor be if you're drifting man  overboard collision a is everything is  gonna be shown directly on your watch on  top of on an iPad and an iPhone which  has been doing forever which is really  nice so you can actually even do  software updates you think about some of  your old electronics that you have on  your boat where it takes a while you got  to do software at home put it on a  compact flash card an SD card bring it  to the boat do a software update  well now what they're doing is they'll  let you do a software update directly  from your phone and your phone's  connected to the internet so you can do  software updates a lot easier  fully waterproof and that silence mode  is really important because like I said  in certain Anchorage's like in Montague  I was there on Boxing Day there's a lot  of boats that were actually navigating  and we were leaving our AAS transponder  on a lot of boats were actually coming  in and the alarm if I didn't have silent  they would think that we're at collision  because they're coming right to the dock  and there's other boats that had a ISS  so it's important if you have your a is  left on for other features that you have  a silent mode otherwise your a is is  going to be always thinking there might  be a collision coming right it doesn't  know you're at a dock it just thinks  you're here and there's another boat  coming right at you so this is sort of  what an AIS Class B transponder looks  like it's about this big this high and  about this thick you don't have to some  boat owners don't have a display or  don't have room for a display on their  hell not every one of us has a huge  bridge like I'm doing a 20th 90-foot  boat right now and the bridge is  literally 20 feet by this big and  there's a screen in every hole so it's  like 20 feet wide by 2 feet it's just an  e wants something so there's no dead  space so like a house without furniture  he wants the house with furniture so for  him it's easy you want screens for  everything  well it's multiple screens you want all  of that black empty space to have  something now that's a problem for him  but for most of us is the other way  around on my boat I have a small  sailboat I don't have space for  everything I've got space for nothing so  how do I show a is targets on my boat  without having a room for a display well  that's why some of these devices now  well what they'll do is they'll take me  is information and then they'll take it  they'll transmit all the time but if you  want to see those vessels you don't have  a screen for it you don't have a latest  greatest chartplotter but you still want  to see is targets they're gonna transmit  those targets to an iPad so you write on  an iPad you can see your bold location  all the data associates your boat  relative to a simple  chartplotter GPS without the charts but  like a base map and then you'll be able  to see okay here all the other vessels  around me so it's a really affordable  way for you to have an AIS or the  benefits of a is without having a fancy  char plaughter in your boat yeah  the blue device right there nope no the  app is just a portal to that information  yeah that's a really good question the  question was who's thinking what's  making the decision what's making the  processing power and figuring out if  there's going to be a collision between  your boat and all other boats around you  right because it's not just another boat  it sees on my AIS when I light it up  again in the Gulf Islands I might have a  hundred targets now as you go more north  there's less and less of them but around  Vancouver and just in Burrard Inlet if  your boats in Cold Harbor and you light  it up you're gonna have probably 150 200  targets they're gonna light up instantly  on your boat so it's looking at all  those targets and it's figuring which  ones are potentially going to come into  collision with your boat and that all  happens automatically you don't have to  ask for it it's sort of like marpa where  you have to acquire targets on a radar  screen track it for a period of time and  then it's going to tell you if you're  gonna get a collision this is all done  without you even looking at it caring  about it  it's all happening in the background  always happening so it's really  convenient that device also comes with  an external really high-powered GPS and  so you can mount that GPS somewhere else  you can buy a dedicated AI at AIS  antenna or you can buy a splitter or you  simply have any is antenna already on  your boat and you route it to the  transponder that device broadcast  information on a tablet but it will also  broadcast that information via enemies  or 183 so I have some boat owners that  have an older Raymarine CSeries vintage  12 years old 13 years old that has an  enemy a port as long as as an Emmy a  high speed port which is like 33 600  baud rate you set that in you can  connect two wires and suddenly on your  12 year old char plotter  you're gonna see all those AIS targets  as soon as you as long as you enable  overlap or overlay so if you don't ask  to see the targets the char plug is not  going to tell you them you have to go in  the menu say I want to see my eyes  targets on top of my char plotter  maps show me all those targets and then  they're gonna say and then you can say  oh by the way I want you to be silent  don't tell me when I'm alarming I don't  care I want you to alarm so you can set  alarms or not and you that with old  technology or you can make it even  easier and you can have on your chart  plotter or display and it simply have  nmea 2000 and simply plug it in right in  MEA 2000 it's kind of like a backbone  it's very easy sort of like USB for  computers it's not complicated you plug  it in and then suddenly that information  that is off of your class B transponder  is going to show up on your chart  plotter and if you want to and you're  down below in your galley or I don't  know your salon and you don't feel like  going up on the bridge to see either AI  as targets while you're in Anchorage at  night you can simply log in to your  phone you know yeah and you don't need  internet connection to do that by the  way this is you talking to this blue box  directly over a localized Wi-Fi network  so you don't need internet you could be  in Princess Louise and do this  you're good to be anywhere you could be  in height of Y on the west side there's  definitely no Wi-Fi there you're  creating your own Wi-Fi network and this  device and your device are talking to  one another over your personal Wi-Fi  network without internet okay  so basically it's like a black box a is  transponder and receiver and the real  big takeaway there is that you do not  need internet to see that information on  your phone now the flip side to that is  if your phone and your boat is in Pender  Harbour you're not going to be able to  load up the Vesper app go on to Wi-Fi  and see your boat right the Wi-Fi  network for Vesper is a localized Wi-Fi  network if you want to see your boat and  your boat like my books and secret cove  and I want to see my boat in secret cove  and I left my transponder on and I'll  show that later there's an app that you  can go on like ship finder and then you  go on ship finder and then you look and  then my AIS transponder would be sending  out a signal a ship a shore station  would get it they know where the boat is  they'd send that information to the  internet I have my phone an app and I go  to the Internet and I get that  information through the internet now  this is very critical the takeaway here  is that anyone and I get this question  asked me about at least 50 times a year  people say why would I buy an AIS  transponder or receiver when I can look  at a is ship traffic on my phone a phone  that is a gadget it is not in a  real-time okay it's sort of like knowing  that your cousin Steve was in the other  room fifteen minutes ago he was Steve  was there 15 minutes ago but where's  Steve now he could be anywhere right  so a is transponders that are shared  over the Internet are not time-stamped  and telling you where the boat is in a  real-time right that's what you need for  collision avoidance you need to see when  we walk between each other and where  crowds here at the boat show we're all  making decisions of moving left or right  slowing down speeding up based on what  we see in a real time right and light  travels pretty damn fast and so we're  all reacting and we're avoiding one  another  if I only saw every 15 minutes and I was  making my collision avoidance based on  15 minute information updates I would be  black and blue constantly there is no  way I can avoid collisions if I have 15  minute outdated information so it's very  important to realize the difference  between an app which has outdated time  information and when you have it on your  boat and it's in more real-time more  real-time not completely real time  because the radar is real-time radar  every sweep of that array is telling you  where something is right every sweep in  IAS is not getting an update every  second it's getting an update every  three minutes six minutes or 12 minutes  so it's a way to know where boats are  but if a boat's acting erratically right  if it's a cigarette boat and it's got  two teenage eighteen year olds that are  boozing and they're doing donuts like  I've seen for example in poets Cove and  they're doing donuts around South Pender  Island and donuts in the Bay of poets  Cove your ass transponder is not gonna  help you because nobody's predicting  that someone's going 40 miles an hour or  50 miles an hour and is doing donuts in  a Bay there is no prediction to where  that boat is gonna go so that's where  your awareness and radar and your own  eyesight is gonna help you avoid that  ship so this is another model and I've  used that on a lot of boats that want to  have a standalone screen just for EIS  targets so they either have rune on the  bridge or something and it's about a  this screen this big it's got all the  same benefits as the other one but it's  got a standalone display now this is not  a chart plotter you know when you buy  for example a Garmin sharp water  nowadays or even a Navionics one it  might have what's called base map that  is not charts there is no sounding  information there's no Shoals there's no  reef  you would never ever navigate with a  base map it's sort of telling you where  Boeing is and maybe where a gambler is  and gambler might be kind of like a big  blob as opposed to you know the way  cambiar is it's got like four three big  bags like everything is kind of crude  indication so if you look at that down  there it's gonna give you some sort of  indication where land is but you would  never make your piloting decisions based  on base mat information okay so it's  simply an overlay of free information  that is not too intense for charting  right it's giving you that information  to put you a positional awareness but  you would never use this as a chart  plotter this is not a chart plotter it's  base map with a is information overlaid  on top on my standard horizon the one I  have said that I had about six years ago  there was simply no base map at all it's  sort of like a radar screen right a  radar screen if you're in the middle of  the ocean is gonna show you land but  it's not gonna show you everything its  land that's high enough so the radar  hits it right the land is very low or  barely I'm going to show you Scholes  it's not gonna show you reefs it's not  gonna show you rocks at high tide that  are covered all that information is not  seen from a radar that's the stuff that  you get from a chart plotter  that has a full chart set right like  blue charts or Navionics or C map or a  CHF raster charts whatever those are but  you can have that information and then  you'll see you can see literally the  other boats on the chart plotter and  they'll start son both are actually  going to start different colors if  they're white enough everything's fine  they're behind you they're going the  opposite direction you'll never see each  other you're both there but you'll never  come into collision but sometimes what  they'll do is they'll show you like in  this picture by the way there's a red  boat it's not red but this boat is on a  collision course with you so you might  want to change course who's got the  right away you've got to start making  your decisions  another thing that's really handy is  these new devices for some of you that  boat either only as a couple or solo if  you ever fall overboard how or other  people gonna find you right so  especially if there's only two people on  board I bring that up because when  someone Paul's on board and you're a  sail boat crew one person is designated  as a spotter someone throws something  overboard right man overboard all right  there's a whole sequence but this is a  team effort if there's two of you on  board and one person falls overboard  let's be honest is going to be full-on  chaos okay it's gonna be pandemonium  because there's one person that's got to  do all these different jobs and if  you're sailing it's gonna be pretty hard  cuz now you got to change tacky I mean  it's not gonna be easy okay and if it's  calm seas and everything's great and  it's benign and the waters you're up and  I don't know in desolation Sound where  this summer by the way it was literally  26 degrees on Labor Day weekend falls  overboard you're good swimmer hey enjoy  the view eventually someone will come  and get you everything's good but if you  fell overboard because actually it was a  storm or strong seas one of these  devices could save your life and these  devices are actually not that big  they're about this long this big they're  actually made to put on your right onto  your lifejacket and they will deploy  automatically once they sense that  you've actually fall into the water and  not only do you deploy automatically  what does deploy mean is they're  actually going to be transmitting for  like 10 or 12 hours your current GPS  location and via a is to all boats in  your surrounding area so that means that  if you have an AIS receiver on your boat  you're actually going to see that person  as it drifts through the water and you  can lose your never maybe never going to  see them or you might be on a swell up  they're gonna swell down right you could  be two swells could be only 500 meters  from one another you'll never see each  other because by the time you're up  there down and vice versa but that  person you're gonna see on your chart  plotter and the Coast Guard can see it  the other boat can see it they're gonna  get a mayday as opposed to a pan-pan  that there's a person that fell in the  water and that automatically sees on all  ships so these little devices West  marine or selling them they're around  there's different companies that do it  this is one I wrote about a couple years  ago I really liked it I saw in Fort  Lauderdale at a show and so these little  devices that are AIS transponders so  they're actually broadcasting your AIS  information to all other vessels that  have an AIS receiver or have an AIS  transponders receiver so it's a really  big safety device you have a question  it's about yeah it's about this big yeah  you don't need the crazy reach right  you're not if you fall in the water  you're alone in the middle of the  Pacific Ocean by the way heads up you're  gonna have some time to think about your  life but you're not gonna be rescued  okay you're going down and there's  nobody coming this is only for localized  information sort of like a handheld VHF  radio works right how big is the  handheld VHF antenna it's certainly not  this long it's this long maybe that in  ten I actually believe it or not  actually flips over and there's a little  antenna in there it does have some reach  but like anything it's better than  nothing what's the better VHF antenna on  my boat  my mass is 60 feet tall I have an  antenna that's this high dipole right it  has some reach on power boaters it  depends they don't need to go like this  because the boat never heal so they're  going horizontal so it's gonna be a  different type of frequency they're  gonna have an antenna maybe that's four  feet on an eight feet or 16 foot  extension yes of course it's better but  the question is nobody's going to be  carrying an antenna that's four feet on  their body so when they fall overboard  and what you're hoping is there's enough  boats around you within ten miles which  by the way in the Strait of Georgia is  not a problem because what's the longest  distances in the Strait of Georgia maybe  30 miles 40 miles at most right I mean  from their bellboy off of UBC to  the pass and Gabriela is like what 1820  nautical miles and that's assuming  you're at one end if you're in the  middle it's 10 nautical miles either a  short side well this is going to be 5 10  nautical miles no problem it's not going  to give you what a VHF at the top of the  mast is but it's not a hundred feet yeah  price these things go for around two to  three hundred dollars u.s. it's gonna be  a person it's a special little icon I  should have taken image it's actually if  a person in the water like with their  hands like that so it looks different  yeah so you're actually gonna see an AIS  person in the water like kind of like or  the water up here telling you like help  it's really hand useful yeah just one  second it's really useful for sailing  for example teams racing teams right  that sail in the middle of the night so  a lot of them are gonna have those on  board because if you fall overboard  unless you have an amazing crew the  chances of being rescued are I mean you  have hope but honestly it's it's pretty  dim pretty dim chances best is  prevention right that's what it is comes  out do not fall overboard if you do just  yeah let's be honest that go ahead  question  yeah  if you were transmitting it at the same  time this thing is not gonna transmit  every second remember it's only gonna  transmit every three minutes or six  minutes so every three six minutes yes  you'd have interference but not an issue  and certainly that's a good point like  before that came on I had a portable VHF  with a built-in GPS receiver right the  standard horizon came up with one I  wouldn't think it was the hx8 seven one  I bought at the boat show three years  ago and that's what I would actually  have in my floater jacket a Mustang in  my pocket it's submersible to six feet  if I fell over more assuming that I  could still use my digits and I don't  know because this water this at  Christmas the water was five degrees  Celsius this year at the surface so that  would be a shock but assuming I'm still  somewhat coordinated I would hope to be  able to press the DSC function on the  radio which is distress signal call and  that would relay their Jeep my GPS  position to all boats mind you on an  antenna only this big but still better  than nothing  and hopefully someone within that  vicinity would be able to respond to my  distress call so what I was saying  designed to fit on a life jacket  flashing LEDs so your spot so it's got a  certain battery life it's got like some  of them have you know 10 hours 12 hours  of battery life because like we said  like falling in the water you're not  going to be rescued or right away you  hope to but this is a way to make it  faster but sometimes things take a lot  longer than you anticipate this is sort  of what it looks like there's different  models by the way the antenna is barely  visible I don't know if you see it it's  this little tiny thing it's about this  big  and it's deployed automatically meaning  as soon as it senses water there's a  trigger mechanism that dissolves and  then the thing opens up so you don't  have to actually initiate or trigger to  yourself because a lot of people what  happens is when they fall in the water  it's not a clean fall some people hit  their head before they go in and so  that's why you need a lifejacket  sometimes that's going to do certain  things and that's why the headrest is  there because not everybody goes in the  water consciously right somebody some of  us pass out on the way into the water  the next thing I want to just show and  this was gonna be wrap it up is these  are the different types of apps that you  can buy for free and that's really handy  if you have someone in your family or  you have your daughter or your your  partner it could be anyone your parents  they want to know where are you on your  boat and you have an AIS transponder and  again it's not used for collision  avoidance it's for informational  awareness into your boat location within  the last let's say 15 minutes assuming  the is transponder is enabled and they  did not put it in silent mode you can  look at these apps and you're gonna be  able to see your boat right on your  phone and that is dependent on that this  boat that has an AAS transponder is not  in princess luisa because no signals  goes into transparent princess luisa but  if in their desolation sound gulf  islands the brow ends most places  there's gonna be a ship vh9 ship ashore  VHF station that's gonna pick up their  signal put it on the internet and then  you'll be able to connect with your  phone to the internet and you'll be able  to see that ships location right on to  your phone so with that I've got  probably two more minutes and I'm gonna  have to let go because someone else is  actually picking up the next  presentation I want to thank you  everyone and if you've got further  questions  I've got displays of all this stuff in  my booth three to two upstairs thank you  everyone(