| So you are interested to set up your own AIS Base Station and publish your data on the internet. Let's list what you would need to do it the same way we do. |
| All the equipment needed should set you back about 330 euro except for the computer and ADSL connection of course. |
| So let us look at the AIS Receiver. The recommended low cost one is the Smart Radio SR161. This is a single channel receiver which costs 199 euro from Stentec (if you click on AIS hardware) who can ship it to you for 8 euro if you are in Europe. |
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| Alternatively if you have a larger budget you can look at the Smart Radio SR162 AIS Receiver which is a dual channel receiver and costs 379 euro, again you can get this at Stentec. We discuss the differences between the two receivers here. |
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| You do not need any special antenna for AIS Receiving. The low cost solution would be to use a stainless steel VHF antenna for sailing boats. This is basically a 1m whip antenna which will cost you from 50-100 euro. Above is the AC Marine Celmar0-1 antenna which we discuss here and which is again available from Stentec. (Stentec call it "AIS-antenna for SR161/162 (15m BNC)") This will give you a good range which you will be satisfied with. If you want a super range then you would have to look into more expensive antennas. Whatever antenna you choose, it MUST be 50 ohm and include in it's range of frequencies 162 MHz. |
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| In order to choose the cable between the AIS Receiver and the Antenna we must decide how long the cable will be. The AIS Receivers discussed above include a serial cable of 1m so you know the receiver can be up to 1m away from the computer. The antenna will be on your roof so find out how much cable you will need. If you need 15m or less cable then use the above type RG58 cable. |
| But if you need more than 15m cable you should use the more expensive RG213 cable. These cables are not something exotic and you should be able to find them at an electronics shop which sells cable and parts. |
| If you do not want to mess around with buying cables, connectors and soldering and if you do not need more than 15m cable then get the AC Marine Celmar0-1 from Stentec because it comes with 15m cable ready for use with the correct connectors on it. |
| Otherwise find a shop that sells marine electronics and antennas, you will buy your antenna there and you can discuss with the technician about the cable and connectors, maybe they will have everything for you there. |
| The antenna socket on the Smart Radio SR161 and SR162 AIS Receivers is a BNC Socket so you will need a BNC plug. It is likely the socket on the antenna will be an SO239 so you will need a PL239 to connect to that. But check anyway. The BNC should be easy to find but the PL239 will only be available from marine electronics shops or ham radio suppliers. So you should get that from the same place you got your antenna. |
| The PL239 is a little different in the photo than the one you will need because it is a converter from the small plug used in that cable. |
| There are constraints with the plugs according to the type of cable that you will use. This is because the RG58 cable for the 15m and less runs is quite thin but the RG213 for the longer than 15m runs is quite thick. |
| If you are using the fat RG213 cable then you are ok for the PL239 and can avoid trying to attach a small BNC to it by instead attaching a PL239 to it on both sides and getting a PL239 to BNC converter. |
| The sailing boat VHF antennas usually come with a mounting bracket that looks like the above one. If you will mount the antenna at the top of a wall then you could use it immediately by drilling holes in the wall, putting rawl-plugs and screwing the bracket to the wall. |
| Probably though you will want to mount the antenna at the top of a television antenna pipe mast. We discuss how to modify the bracket to do that here. |
| Ideally you want to put the antenna as high as you can, so on your roof probably. If there are any buildings close at the height of the antenna then your range will not be any good in that direction. |
| Ideally you want to have an unrestricted view for several kilometers in the direction you want to see in. You do not have to see the sea though, but you should consider that the guaranteed range of the antenna will be about 30 nautical miles so if you are that far from the sea you probably will not see any ships. It is quite possible that the AIS signals can be received from behind mountains but it depends how high and close the mountains are to your antenna. |
| If your location is at the port and the antenna will only be placed a few metres above sea level then do not expect amazing range. |
| Most of the AIS Receivers are supplied without power supply. You do not need a special power supply, all you need is a 12v power supply which you can get from an electronics shop. It should be Regulated or Stabilized though. We discuss such a power supply here. |
| To check the voltage of the power supply you can use a multimeter. If it is regulated then the voltage should not fluctuate more than .01v. Such a power supply would be very nice for an AIS Receiver. |
| If you are interested in super receiving range then you may try an expensive power supply designed for ham radios or otherwise a 12v battery and charger. Personally I do not think these are necessary though. |
| The computer you will use must have a serial port for the connection to the AIS Receiver. If you do not have a serial port then you will have to get a USB to Serial adapter. The computer should run windows to run the shipplotter software although some users have got it running under WINE. |
| You do not need a separate computer to run the shipplotter and handle all the AIS stuff. But some people prefer to use a separate computer. If you have any P4 computer or faster then you would not notice shipplotter running while you use the computer for other stuff. Some people have shipplotter running under suprisingly low spec machines. |
| The ADSL or other broadband connection is used to upload your data to your internet site or share your data with other shipplotter users or share your data with us. The actual size of the data upload/download would be kilobytes once per minute or whatever frequency of updates you set it to. Say like 100kb or whatever. It would not place any considerable demand on your internet connection at all. |
| The shipplotter software we discuss here. |
