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I already have a Wideband or a VHF Receiver. Can I use it instead of an AIS Receiver?

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John Admin

This is possible, too! If you already have a Wideband receiver or a marine VHF radiotelephone, you may use either of them to collect AIS data and send it to our central database, without having to buy a specialised AIS receiver. Follow these steps in order to do so:

  1. Tune your receiver to one of the following frequencies: 161,975 Mhz or 162,025 Mhz (FM modulation) or, if you operate a radiotelephone, tune it to channel 87. If there is any signal reception, you should be able to hear a "noise" repeated at very short intervals. This "noise" would be a raw AIS-transmitted message.
  2. Connect the discriminator output of your receiver to the input (line-in or microphone) of your computer.
  3. Install the "AISMon" software on your computer.
  4. Run the AISMon program, select the sound card of your PC and configure the UDP data output to: 5.9.207.224:5321
  5. View the ships - the signals of which you are receiving - directly on the AISMon's real-time map!

Note that in case your VHF device does not have a discriminator output available, you may tap into it. If you are interested in doing so, you may find more information and download a relevant DIY guide by following this link. 

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