I really do need to clarify here, the gizmo in question is an AIS
receiver. An AIS receiver denied at its birth the ability to transmit
or ever grow up into a transceiver. It is listen only.

As it stands you are in sum danger of interfering with the AIS
system in that it operates on 161.975 and 162.025 so I imagine it
could be some how possible for your VHF set to break in such a way
that it broadcasts over the traffic on these channels. Not probable I
would think.

As for causing collateral damage, AIS is an aid to navigation, not a
replacement for navigation. Given that AIS is a digital communication
even with a transceiver it would take effort to construct a message
that might cause someone to make a decision leading to an accident.

On the other hand, by supporting an AIS receiver for us to use to
archive data, you can help with the accident investigation after the
fact. Or help prevent an accident by allowing real-time proactive
monitoring of shipping behavior, for example by that captains company.
This is already used in the trucking industry.

Thanks to everyone who responded. If you have a VHF line of sight to
any of the inland waterways and would like to help please email me.
Here are some AIS related links that you might find of interest.

http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/enav/ais/default.htm
http://www.panbo.com/archives/cat_ais.html
http://www.aislive.com/


On May 29, 9:35*pm, "Lumpy" wrote:
AI4QJ wrote:
Isn't it great when you ask a sensible question and then you get
attacked by someone questioning the motives for your original
question ;-)

I didn't see an "attack". I saw a sensible question
about a cloudy issue.

I don't know how you would feel about loaning
tower space to a navigational aid, but I wouldn't
do it. I'd do it for some hams doing APRS or
something like that. But not for a system that's
designed for safe navigation by commercial vessels.

The last thing I would want would be for something
to go wrong with the install, the tower, the feedline
etc and a barge crashes and loses a billion dollars
in cargo and kills a dozen people.

Now exactly what was that good reason for putting
those gizmos on somebody's ham tower?

Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke

www.n0eq.com