HOW TO USE THE AIS SHIP POSITION MAPS

Search Tags:

161.975 and 162.025 mhz, about ais, isle of wight ais, iow ais, ais channels, ais cowes harbour, ais decoder, ais details, ais decoding program, ais decoding software, ais english channel, ais equipment, ais fawley, ais for beginners, ais frequencies, ais frequency, ais information, ais isle of wight, ais live, ais map log, ais message format, ais messages, ais on warships and naval vessels, ais poole, ais portsmouth harbour, ais program, ais ship tracking, ais software, ais sound clips, ais south coast, ais southampton docks, ais southampton water, ais spithead, ais st.helens, ais video clip, ais website, automatic identification system, beginners guise to ais, cheap ais, class a messages, class b messages, commercial ais, cruise ship locations, current ship positions, decode ais, decoding ais, detailed guide to ais (pdf document), do it yourself ais, explanation of ais, getting started with ais, guide to ais, how to decode, how to receive ais, imo number, information about ais, international marine channels 87 and 88, itu register, leisure craft ais, live ais cowes harbour, live ais english channel, live ais fawley, live ais isle of wight, live ais portsmouth harbour, live ais southampton docks, live ais spithead, live ais st.helens, live ais website, live radar southampton vts, live ship positions, low cost ais, maritime ais vessel requirements, message format, message frequency, message timing, mmsi numbers, monitoring ais, movie clip of ais in action, movie clip of shipplotter, movie of container ship entering southampton on ais, southampton ais ship tracker nauticast, naval ship ais, past ship position log, pictures of ships, present ship positions, raw ais messages, real time plots of ais signals, real time ship positions, real time ship tracking, receiving ais, ship list, ship photo log, ship spotting, ship tracking, ship watching, shipplotter program, shipplotter screen shot, shipplotter software, shipplotter software, ships at anchor, ships in dock, ships in port, ships in port, ships in portsmouth harbour, ships in southampton docks, ships underway, solent ais photo log, solent ais picture log, solent ship photo log, solent ship photographs, solent ship photos, solent ship pictures, solent ship positions, solent ship tracking, solent shipping details, sound clips of ais signals, ais transmission sound clip, example of what ais sounds like, sounds of ais signals in am and fm modes, what does ais sound like, southampton docks ship positions, southampton vts live radar, spoof ais transmissions, receiving ais, tanker positions, transponder, using a vhf scanner for ais decoding, vessel regulations, vessel requirements, vessels in port, vhf channel 87, vhf channel 88, vts southampton live radar screen shot, vts tagged radar image, warship ais, what ais sounds like, world ship register, southampton vts live radio streaming, qhm live radio, live marine radio southampton, live marine radio solent, southampton VTS channel 12, QHM Portsmouth channel 11, maritime radio, frequency list, marine frequency list, maritime channel frequencies, southampton VTS channel 12 live radio, QHM channel 11 live radio stream, 156.600 Mhz, 156.550 Mhz, Ryde webcam isle of wight webcam ais-live shipping webcam see the ships pass ryde with the ryde shipping webcam see the shipping in the solent with the live shipping webcam solent webcam watching the ships go by with the ryde isle of wight shipping webcam www.ais-live.co.uk shipping webcam ship spotting webcam see the cruise ships on the ryde live webcam ais plots combined with a webcam lets you watch the ships as they leave southampton vts webcam at dockhead

Each balloon icon represents a ship. They are colour coded according to the type of ship. For a list of the colour codes click on ‘COLOURS’ button just above the maps. The ships may take a while to appear and the map may take a while to zoom and pan if you are using a slow Internet connection. Ensure your java is enabled. The balloon colour will only be correct if the ship’s AIS equipment has been programmed correctly. Ships with ‘Sailing Vessel’ or ‘Pleasure Craft’ programmed into the AIS equipment will not be shown on the maps except on the ‘With Sail’ or ‘Only Sail’ maps. As not all pleasure craft owners are diligent when programming their equipment, this is not foolproof. Ship positions are uploaded every 10 seconds except at times when my Internet connection is busy, I’m doing system maintenance or my system has crashed! The time of the last position upload is shown just below the bottom right of the map. The last position upload is plotted on the map every 10 seconds as shown by a countdown timer at the bottom left of the map. When the the ships are being plotted, all functions will be inhibited for a few seconds. Although the map covers the whole world, I only display ships within 30 miles of Southampton Dock Head. The line extending form the ship icon is its heading, and the length of the line is proportional to the ships speed. If a ship has a heading line but does not move on the map when the positions are updated then I have not received any recent reports from that ship and its position will be incorrect. It will be deleted from the map in 15-30 minutes. Ship positions from other users (usually the more distant ones) are updated when I receive the shared information and may well be 5 - 10 minutes out of date. Mouseover the ship icon for the name of the ship. Click the ship icon to display an information flag. Always check the ‘received’ time in the information flag - this time is the last report I have received from this ship, and may be much older than the last upload time, especially if the ship is on the edge of my reception area. The ship positions are updated every 10 seconds but because slow moving ships may transmit their AIS data at intervals longer than this, not all ships will move every 10 seconds. Ships that are traveling fast or have a high rate of turn will transmit their AIS data more frequently. Sometimes when two ships are very close together, you have to zoom right in to separate them. Even then if they are very close together you might not be able to separate them, and you will have to click on the ship list below the map to bring up the information flag. If the ships don’t move, wait for a few ship position updates and if the ships still don’t move or if no ships are displayed then the site is broken. Check the last upload time against the current server time - if all is working properly there should be no more than a minute or two difference between them. Sometimes the fault occurs due to the hosting company server which is beyond my control. Please e-mail me or phone me (01983 611638) if you notice any malfunction and I will try and fix it.

These photos are of ships with AIS that have passed through the area during the current year. If possible I will post new pictures a day or two before the ship enters the area. I include ships that transit the Solent, or enter the area to anchor or berth. I do not include ships that transit the area south of the Isle of Wight. Unless they are large, privately owned vessels such as pleasure craft will not be included. Click on the folder to see ships beginning with the letter you have selected. Click on the thumbnail to see an enlarged image (you will have to use the bottom scroll bar to scroll across the picture). Click the button bottom left of the pictures to return to the thumbnails or folders. You can also open the pictures in a new window.