By Russ, on October 13th, 2008
If you have read up on AIS including posts here on this blog you may recall that AIS uses very short bursts of high speed data on two VHF channels in the marine band. The two frequencies used are 161.975 (Marine ch 87) and 162.025 (ch 88) MHz. Ships broadcast their identity, position, course, speed and destination so that other ships can take account of their movements.
Using a low cost radio scanner tuned to one or other of these channels and ShipPlotter software running on your PC, you will
…….Click ShipPlotter Fanatics are all over the UK 
…. to continue reading
By Russ, on October 10th, 2008
Earlier this year I commended Martin Waller in East Anglia for his live AIS site – well now we have a similar site based right on the English Channel. This site is a fantastic aid for all English Channel sailors and power boaters Saltdean AIS.
Here you can see data being updated every 5 mins for the shipping transmitting AIS data in the English Channel. You can even get detailed charts for many of the major ports along the Channel.
You can see how clearly the Traffic
…….Click Live AIS data for the English Channel.. …. to continue reading
By Russ, on October 1st, 2008
If you have read my blog recently then you will also realise that the question of the rising cost of diesel fuel has also been causing a lot of concern and controversy in the UK boating community. So I thought I would carry out an investigation into the practicality of running a boat on pure electric or on hybrid propulsion systems such as combined diesel and electric power.
Although there are drawbacks to hybrid systems – some of which I list below – it reminds me of the early days of the commercialisation of the microcomputers in the 80’s when
…….Click Hybrid has got to be the “way forward”… …. to continue reading
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