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Following our popular post on integrating the Standard Horizon GX2000 with the AMEC CAMINO-101, this article discusses how to use the latest AMEC AIS transponder, the CAMINO-108, with the GX2000.

Want to connect the popular Vesper Marine XB-8000 Class B AIS transponder to a low-cost. low-power display? Do you also need a new VHF radio? Now you can solve both challenges with these two products tied together. Check out this article which covers how to hook up the Standard Horizon GX2000 VHF Radio with AIS display to the Vesper XB-8000.

In case you missed it, Rose Point Navigation Systems have low-cost raster and vector charts covering BC Canada for Coastal Explorer.

Last year I wrote an article describing how to get two of our most popular products to work together: Rose Point Navigation Coastal Explorer and the Standard Horizon GX2150 VHF radio with a built-in AIS receiver. Now Standard Horizon has released a new radio – the Standard Horizon Matrix GX2200 AIS/GPS Receiver VHF Radio. This new radio has everything the GX2150 has with the addition of a built-in GPS receiver. The question we are getting from customers is, how can I connect this new radio to a PC and can I get AIS and GPS data sent to the PC. Fortunately there is a simple solution using our USB Breakout Cable that allows Coastal Explorer or any PC-based navigation program to use the GPS, AIS and DSC NMEA data that is received by this radio. While the wiring is very straight forward, you need to configure a few settings on the radio to make this work.

Great article by Mark Bunzel published by the folks at Waggoner Cruising Guide.

Print is dead yet again. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that beginning in April 2014, it will no longer print the detailed lithographic nautical charts that have been a staple of navigation since 1862. NOAA says that mariners are increasingly forgoing the paper maps in favor of easily updated electronic charts that show multifaceted information. As a final nod to paper, the agency will continue to offer printed charts as a print-on-demand service through private vendors.

This past Thursday I had the privilege of attending the America's Cup as a guest of Vesper Marine and Emirates Team New Zealand.

If you haven't seen it head over to Panbo to check out Ben Ellison's post "Vesper Marine WatchMate, still the leader in AIS collision avoidance?"

Two of our most popular products are Rose Point Navigation Coastal Explorer 2011 and the Standard Horizon GX2150 VHF radio with a built-in AIS receiver. And a common question we get is: can these two products work together? Fortunately the answer is yes.

Touch-based tablets are all the rage and more and more boaters are looking for ways to use a tablet for marine navigation and AIS target display.

As the International Space Station circles Earth, it has been tracking individual ships crossing the seas beneath. An investigation hosted by the European Space Agency (ESA) in its Columbus module has been testing the viability of monitoring global maritime traffic from the station's orbit hundreds of miles (kilometers) above since June 2010.

We have had a number of customers come to us and ask for a low cost solution that combines a Class B AIS transponder, a DSC-enabled VHF radio and a basic AIS display with as few components as possible. One way to do this is to build the solution with the AMEC CAMINO 101 Class B transponder and the Standard Horizon Matrix GX2000 VHF radio with AIS display.

One question we get asked a lot when customers are looking to buy an AIS Class B transponder is: "can I use my existing GPS instead of needing to install yet another GPS antenna on my rail"?

We have been getting a lot of requests for ways to get AIS data to an iPad. This post outlines one method that worked very well plus allowed my other devices to also use the same AIS data.

This article discusses how GPS antennas and receivers work with AIS transponders and receivers.

One of the most common questions we get from customers is "I've set up my new transponder but no one can see me". In virtually every case the transponder is working fine so here are some things to keep in mind when installing and testing a Class B AIS transponder.

We get asked fairly often whether using a VHF antenna splitter to share a single antenna with a VHF radio and an AIS device is a good idea or not. This post gives our point of view which will hopefully help you decide what right is for you.