AIS

AIS (Automatic Identification System) was created over twenty years ago as a navigation aid for use in busy waters, however, whilst radar provides basic information on the obstacles of a course,  AIS-equipped transceivers provide very accurate data on the navigation of nearby boats, including speed, course, vessel identification, size and sometimes, their destination. AIS is based on digital radio communication where various transceivers share transmission time.

The system is theoretically limited to 75 boats: however, when a large number of boats are sailing in the same zone, the AIS system automatically reduces its receive action radius to give greater importance to the strongest signals retrieved, that is to say, the boats that are nearest.

To avoid risks linked to a transmission channel breakdown, the AIS system functions in parallel on two frequencies in a frequency band dedicated to maritime traffic. These frequencies are set by default to 161.975MHz (maritime channel 87B) and 162.025MHz (maritime channel 88B).
br>>Icom currently have four AIS products available; the IC-M505 and the IC-M03 can be purchased with a built in AIS receiver. Icom also has a  dedicated AIS Receiver available,  the MXA-5000. Soon to be part of Icom AIS line up is the MA-500TR AIS Transponder, details of which can be found here.