AIS Transponder Recommendations

[GBR3068]

One thing that might help others and that caught me out. If you buy used or off eBay, watch out for how you program or re-program the AIS unit. Both the MMSI and other data. For Class B I think it's all over the map. Some units you can change the MMSI yourself, others you need software, some you need to send back to mfr. For vessel name changes, its again not uniform. Sometimes when offshore I want to change my name from "EOS" to "EOS (solo sailor)" and back again for example. I can do that but you have to be careful when you have more than one AIS unit. The Icom in particular does not like that situation. The rules are here: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-4...section-80.231

For Class A I dont know what the rules really are. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-4...section-80.275 doesnt help and most people wont have Class A anyway. But FWIW I can change anything on my em-Trak. the only problem was for some reason I couldn't ship an em-Trak to California. I dont know why.

Mike on EOS

[sierrawhiskeygo]

Mike on EOS ,

This is an excellent point about re-programming. With the Garmin AIS 600 I had to dig around a bit to find a password to unlock the Garmin software to allow me reprogram the MMSI. Some of the good eBay sellers will sell either the service to program to your MMSI or will sell the used units 'clean'.