AIS: The Most Comprehensive Video on Maritime Tracking Technology!

[@YachtReport]

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[@FLGurl]

Thank you for this wealth of information. 🤗 I will take that the name on your Gulf shirt is yours?

[@dougmarder]

As a member of the original US Coast Guard's Nationwide AIS (NAIS) design team, I heartily endorse this video. There are a few AIS capabilities you left out or mentioned peripherally, like enhanced capabilities for DSC, and as a few other commenters have mentioned, airborne AIS, but this was extraordinarily thorough. One aspect unique to the USA is the history of resistance to and slow adoption of AIS by our maritime community. There are too many historical and cultural reasons for this to go into here. Fortunately, continually falling prices, increased features, and improved integration with other shipboard systems has dramatically lowered the bar. One point I would add about vessels turning off their AIS is that Coast Guards and militaries monitoring and patrolling their coastal waters and inland waterways around the world get very excited when radar, sonar, and video do not match-up with AIS data. The "Common Operating Picture" (COP) systems flag these targets and they become immediate high priority targets of interest. This was one of the major selling points for the US government (and others) post 9/11. From the civilian side, one of the major remaining problems with AIS is getting a MMSI (Maritime Mobile Services Identities, a unique vessel identifier) and having it programmed into your vessel's AIS devices. Purchasing a used vessel with AIS installed requires transfer of the MMSI or reprogramming of the ship's devices with a new registered MMSI which also creates a lot of headaches. Transferring ownership of homes, cars, and even websites is usually much easier.

[@SteveDavis999-j1x]

Yo Sysman, Thanks so much for this video. This is the finest explanation of the complete AIS system I have ever seen. I'm a retired I.T. guy with 52 years of experience and I gleaned a massive amount of knowledge from your video. Keep up the hard work as I'm sure there are thousand of geek subscribers that loved digesting all this minutia.

[@YachtReport]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@onecreative1]

Great video! You've stirred up some fond memories. I like you, served in the military. I had the honor of serving in the Coast Guard for ten years, the Air Force for eleven years, and the Space Force for one year before retiring. As I was watching your video I was reminded of the many operations I was involved with over the years in which I was intimately familiar with what you discussed. So, great job in putting the video and information together into an easy-to-understand package for the novice. Bravo! Keep up the excellent work.

[@helibob2367]

10, 15 years ago I worked as a helicopter pilot on board a private yacht. We were upgrading to a new helicopter, and I got this brilliant idea to eqip it with AIS. It would only identify 20 targets at time, and one day flying down the coast of Spain it picked up a vessel off the coast of Algeria, over 180 miles away.

[@dirtyeric]

The elevation, or in your case the altitude, of your receive antenna is what allowed that long range intercept. This is why many countries utilize aircraft for the ISR and maritime surveillance and why when you are onboard the vessel you can hear the aircraft transmissions beyond LOS. I have received sea level reception of AIS of over 100nm but near the equator. There is also a phenomenon call Atmospheric Ducting, where the radio signal gets 'trapped' between two layers of air and is ducted long distances until the lower boundary layer degrades and allows the signal to pass through it.

[@waylonk2453]

@@dirtyeric I was looking at the video's signal behavior diagram and trying to remember what the term was. An amateur radio operator once told me that VHF can sometimes behave like this, traveling much further than usual. "Atmostpheric ducting," thank you.

[@brunoterlingen2203]

"Simple" and to the point, very well done Sir.

[@dcallan812]

Fantastic video 2x👍 I love to use Marine Traffic to look up the ships sailing past my home. I used to see ships sail past and wonder what they where, when they came from and are going etc. Now its easy I can just look them up and also get photos of the boats just to make sure I have the right vessel.

[@edwinjames6283]

I ordered a leather chair from India last year. I was able to track the container ship all the way to Norfolk, Virginia. Thank you for giving such a great explanation as to how that was possible. Some students at the local high school here in northernmost Maine got to follow the ship also. Great job.

[@dzhiurgis]

how do you order stuff from india?

[@edwinjames6283]

@@dzhiurgis The company here in the U.S. would best be described as a manufacturers representative. I ordered through them and they gave access to the tracking information as soon as it was loaded onto a container box, before even being loaded onto a ship. I thought it really cool having that knowledge . It took four or five months to receive my chair from the time I ordered it.

[@lovelightcontinuum]

Yay Maine. 🎉

[@RJDA.Dakota]

Awesome video that explains a lot. Everyone should see this. Thanks for sharing this important information. To me, you have a great, very important channel.

[@robertlevine2152]

The best explanation of AIS I've read or watched. This should be a mandatory watch for ship officers.

[@philiptorrens2052]

I'm an instructor/examiner for the Restricted Operator's Certificate (Maritime) - the permit you need to operate a marine VHF in Canada. This is an excellent introduction to how AIS works - I'll be referring my students who want to take a deeper dive into AIS to this video. Thanks!

[@allan8004]

Wonderful video of information available to the maritime industry, thank you for your insight into these amazing systems and safety measures, so many different levels to think about before handing down a verdict, as usual I will just keep watching your videos for my info, All the best, Al

[@salassian3162]

Nice job, E-Sysman. Very interesting and thorough explanation of AIS.

[@ArtVanAuggie]

Excellent presentation. Very interesting and informative.

[@ADHJkvsNgsMBbTQe]

Fantastic video. Please keep up the great work!

[@seanneal9406]

You are a remarkable genius. Everything is so well done and presented.

[@infopubs]

Nicely done video. I'm saving this to send to friends and family who want to know how AIS works.

[@ArtFreeman]

AIS is quite interesting.

[@williamstreet4304]

AIS technology is becoming more accessible to smaller vessels. I sailed on 2 sailboats under 50 feet last year. Both of them had class B AIS transponders. It allowed us to see the location, speed and direction of nearby vessels along with information about boat size, and even type of cargo. This significantly helped watches at night or during fog and rain.

[@waylonk2453]

Thanks for making such a comprehensive video on AIS and related systems. I had no idea there was so much infrastructure devoted to the position reporting of ships!

[@lovelightcontinuum]

Being more familiar with avaiation AIS this really put the whole picture together into one frame for me. It fit the whole EPERB device element in for me, without actually mentioning it. Smashingly Good Video!

[@Dan-oj4iq]

I wouldn't want to take a quiz right after watching this video. Out of around twenty questions I might get two correct.

[@lennymarinez]

Same. Lol

[@zonzeven]

A very interesting video indeed ! But allow me a question about the time it takes for a low orbit satellite to do one orbit. At 13:02 I hear the value of 45 min, I did a calculation which resulted in a different value. The force needed to keep an object in orbit equals the gravitational pull. m*v^2 / r = G*m*M / r^2 [1] mass of satellite m mass of earth M = 5.9722 * 10^24 kg gravitational constant G = 6.674 * 10^(-11) m^3 s^(-2) kg^(-1) radius orbit = (r(eq) + r(polar))/2 + h h is height of Iridium sat. = 780*10^3 m for r I take the average of equatorial and polar radius plus h = (12756+12714)/4 + 780 km = 7148 km = 7.148*10^6 m from [1] we eliminate m and multiply left and right by r with leads to v^2 = G*M / r v^2 = 6.6714* 10^(-11) * 5.9722*10^(-24) / 7.148*10^6 = 5.576*10^7 v = 7.467*10^3 m/s orbit time = 2*PI*7.148*10^6 / 7.467*10^3 = 6.015*10^3 sec = 100.25 minutes = 100 min 15 sec Did I make a mistake ? Note : my English is very limited, I hope my physics are better 🙂

[@charlesmnadeau]

Excellent and informative. More please.

[@maureendwyer3547]

Brilliant, thank you!

[@TheRandallraplee]

Great video and very informative! Thank you.

[@calumshaw]

I thought I fully understood AIS; thank you, I am now enlightened. I subscribe to Marine Traffic as I cruise a lot and love AIS. To stop a lot of the deliberate avoidance tactics employed by some, why don't insurance policies automatically become void if a vessel turns off it's AIS transponder if underway.

[@panoshountis1516]

Thank you so much for this video. A system's man indeed.

[@aamiddel8646]

Great explanation. More to it than i thought. Just a question. Who's paying for that all? Ships pay a subscriptions or so?

[@YachtReport]

Data is a valuable commodity. The companies that collect it sell it to other companies (like MArine Traffic) who sell it to us etc. It's used by governments, coastguards and so on...

[@davebealer8806]

Always enjoy your videos and this one is a great explanation of the AIS and its various offshoots! Keep up the great work!

[@erbrock1]

Great video. Are there any consequences to vessels which are required to broadcast but don't?

[@Rexy624]

In US territorial waters you can be fined up to $10,000 and spend up to three years in jail! This also applies to incorrect ship static data being entered in the unit.

[@jeanettenorman7052]

Wow - thanks for this info.

[@ShakesSphere]

Yes, I shipped a pkg from the states to a buyer in Australia, and bam..that was en route when the xmas tsunami hit Thailand...the pkg didn't arrive. After several phone calls, found out it shipped out of San Diego, more insistent phone calls, found out the particular ship, and that it was caught up, and docked in Singapore for repairs!! The pkg finally arrived, albeit 2 months later!! Australian buyer was insisting it would eventually turn up, and it did, whew, irreplaceable item. Anyway, I never knew ANY of what you've just taught me!! It's wonderful to have so much better an understanding of ship tracking, for far more serious issues than just a pkg! Thank you again, GREAT VIDEO ❤

[@timf6916]

Good information, I didn’t know all that.

[@jyurciw]

Thanks for the very interesting info, I really enjoy this type of info. Also, I need to get one of those Gulf shirts, very cool. Where can I get one? Thanks!!

[@Rama_Guru]

That's a great video thanks

[@normbond8888]

Thanks for this explanation of AIS. Works like Apples ‘Trac your friends or your Apple products’ but much more intuitive over a larger area. 👍🇨🇦🙏

[@zlm001]

Thanks.

[@Rwalt61]

It sounds like a system very similar to ADS-B on aircraft.

[@YachtReport]

The data for aircraft is collected by the same satellites.

[@RayTheMickey]

Excellent description of how this sytem works!

[@AlaskaRog]

Great video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge on AIS!

[@colintwyning9614]

Great explanation of AIS in all its varietes. Thank you

[@dangermouse8466]

Esysman, thank you for the video. Very interesting and informative. So, if I understand this correctly, if my super yacht is near a coast and one of these T-AIS base stations receive my AIS signal, they can stop my AIS signal from being broadcast to other ships?

[@YachtReport]

No, the reference to basestations being able to control AIS transponders was referring to national coastguards, whom have access to systems that allow them to control traffic within an area they control.

[@dangermouse8466]

@@YachtReport Aaah ok. Thank you very much for the clarification. I appreciate your help much. Thank you again for the lovely videos.

[@jfmezei]

Many thanks on the explanation on how "Hey! Eye Yes" works with tdma and satellites. Recall you telling me it ws VHF only with no satellite connection and now I understand how the satellites get their feed. Out of curiosity, at what interval would a ship transmit its information? every second, every minute? every 5 minutes? every 10 minutes ? does that change depending on its location ( I assume less important in middle of ocean vs within a port). So a ship's device is a receiver as well and will "see" vessels nearby even if in the middle of ocean? Could satellite or land based station transmit to ships% (for instance "port of baltimore closed" when approaching the transmitter near the port). Or is this solely for ships to transmit their position in a unidirectional way?

[@budgetaudiophilelife-long5461]

🙋‍♂️ JUST NOW WATCHING…THANKS FOR A GREAT EXPLANATION AND AS ALWAYS…LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR NEXT ONE 🤗💚💚💚

[@patriciarussell1177]

Thank you so much for keeping me occupied with good news other than US news that's so tainted all through the beginning, I wish I could say the ending of the Ukraine war and much much more you're a very good person I will continue to watch

[@mikew6765]

Well, I was on the fence before but your video has convinced me -- I keep all my boats under 300 gross tons, lol.

[@stephenhewitt1685]

If in Australia that 300 grit doesn’t matter it’s any commercial vessel with a class one survey

[@qno-oj3py]

Thanks very much. As always a very good and informative video. I have a question. I have a VHF with ATIS. Do you know if there is an option to send GPS information with the ATIS system? I know the owners ATIS number is sent but is there room in the ATIS package for more information?

[@piersdupre6120]

An excellent briefing on AIS. Thank you.

[@killeresk]

Great video, very informative. Like this type of content also.

[@LG-ct8tw]

Awesome video. A must see to make sense of AIS for land and seafarers alike. Thank you

[@grondhero]

With all those acronyms, I thought I was back in the military! 😆Very informative video!

[@toomasnelson4561]

thanks . very educational. I always took the dumb route and assumed "what I see is what I get." Obviously there is more to it.

[@weshammermeister9044]

Thanks for the information, never hurts to learn something new

[@michaelevan9184]

iridium are the same satellites that are used for ADS-B for aircraft tracking

[@barbarak6199]

Nice work, thank you very much! I am (nearly) disappointed there wasn’t a quiz at the end.

[@YachtReport]

Next time!

[@GreyHak]

Thank you for the tutorial

[@patrickabas1112]

Good one, very educational.

[@dragods1516]

Great and informative video, thank you!

[@Phantom-mk4kp]

What was your position on yachts and cruise ships, were you a navigational officer? Also if a ship has multiple fixed VHF devices, example main Comms radio a a separate radio for AIS would they share the same MMSI number?

[@YachtReport]

All radios would use the same MMSI because they’re all on the same vessel.

[@andrewgillis3073]

I would love to see a short video of how AIS and plotting / weather software is actually used. 😁

[@dx5018]

Outstanding! Thank you

[@stevekelly5166]

Being picky, a LEO satellite does an orbit in just 45 mins? It would burn up. More like twice the time for LEO. The rest of your video, fascinating how the various systems combine tp present and overall picture, and very well explained. Well done.

[@patricklindahl868]

The man who invented the SOTDMA was a Swede, Håkan Lans, a man that also invented color graphics on the computer screen and a very early version of the mouse. When he was 16 he built his own submarin and went down to the bottom in the Stockholm archipelago. When he came up, the military stood there and asked what he was doing! When it was time for him to do the military service, he was called up to the Minister of Defence, who said, -You are not going to be an ordinary soldier, you are going to the Swedish Defence Research Agency! There he got a room for himself and a bunch of money. -Do whatever you want, that can be good for us!

[@BridMhor]

Well explained. Thank you.

[@applejacks971]

It's mind blowing to think about the amount of radio frequency that's around us. Ever car has a radio, every house a tv, every ship and airplane a radio, every person a phone. Satellites beaming down signals, radio stations beaming out songs and news, tv stations sending out signals, all at light speed its nuts! Imagine if radio signals/frequencies weren't invisible.

[@davidford3073]

I enjoyed this conversation/channel educating people who don’t know this stuff

[@Syndr1]

I feel like i don't have the security clearance to watch this.

[@JRTurgeon13]

Very informative! Almost too much information!😉

[@skiingfast1]

Excellent video on the black arts.

[@JR56Delivery]

Well. Now that is clear as mud.

[@dzhiurgis]

Are you aware of any services that track vessels using SAR?

[@johnsmith-tn8rn]

Great video! Love these “behind the scenes” videos. T-AIS appears to be loosely compared to the international air traffic control systems.

[@louispaparella5766]

If you keep learnin me this stuff...I'll lose my Certified Landlubber (3CL), Rate. NOT!!!

[@brianbarbarich1401]

Some ship's switch off their AIS, or set it to the mode that receives other ship's only without being identified.

[@luukbvos]

Since AIS is a distributed network, obviously with transponders on ( privately owned) ships, isn’t it subject to spoofing or other ways of hacking, injecting false information in the system or worse?

[@chadgdry3938]

Cool

[@miceinoz1181]

OK, so I thought the E in eSysman stood for engineering (system manager?). Now maybe it stands for Electronics System Manager. I did not see you looking at any flash cards when speiling all this information flawlessly. A serious depth of knowledge of electronics and comms would explain that.

[@SoCalFreelance]

The only aspect not covered in this video s AIS spoofing used by military units, intelligence agencies, government officials, and people who want to deceive ship spotters or don't want to be bothered.

[@johngibson3837]

Hey up mate thanks for the video, after watching went to click that thumb and it was on 666 so im guessing the video is devils work and supposed to confuse

[@SamCheryl-s6q]

Davon Trafficway

[@philread7668]

But how many Albert Hall's? How many Olympic swimming pools?

[@Heater-v1.0.0]

Oddly enough the Very High Frequency (VHF) that AIS uses is nowadays a pretty low frequency now a days.VHF is around 100MHz, Cell phones and WiFi are up in hundreds of MHz and GHz.

[@philipmackin1025]

Rule of thumb. Depending on how each bands wave propagation. HF 3 to 30 megahertz VHF 30 to 300 megahertz UHF 300 to 3000 megahertz

[@Heater-v1.0.0]

@@philipmackin1025 Yeah, like that.

[@howtodave1725]

Can I buy a vowel for $200 please. e as in esysman.

[@lennymarinez]

Kinda makes me not want to purchase a my.

[@Syndr1]

Hey, you think Somilian Pirate's 🦜 watch your channel?

[@TomGrant-y5j]

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