A Simple AIS Receiver System
We have designed a simple, robust kit powered by the Raspberry Pi, which is designed to detect AIS signals in your area and forward them to the vesseltracker.com server in real-time.
Components
- VHF antenna
- Coaxial cable
- Combined AIS receiver / Raspberry Pi
Download Installation Guide
Detection range
Your antenna's range will depend on several factors:
- Elevation: because of the Earth's curvature, the higher your antenna is placed, the further it will be able to detect.
- Line-of-sight: large objects such as mountains, hills and large buildings will block AIS signals from reaching your antenna. In general, if an antenna can "see" a vessel, it can detect its AIS signals.
- Local weather conditions: certain weather conditions will cause AIS signals to travel further through the atmosphere and across water. In these conditions, your antenna will detect signals much further away than normal.
In general, our antennas can detect vessels within at least 35-45 kilometres (20-25 nautical miles), with higher ranges possible the higher your place your antenna.
Power consumption
Because the AIS antenna is a completely passive system, it has an extremely low power consumption of approximately 7 Watts.
Internet/bandwidth usage
The amount of Internet your antenna consumes will depend on the amount of AIS data your antenna receives, which depends on the number of vessels in your region. However, even in major ports (eg. Singapore, Rotterdam), our AIS antennas still consume very little Internet - the equivalent of sending several extra emails per day.
Installation
All our antenna partners are responsible for installing their own antennas. While most partners choose to install all equipemnt themselves, if your location is difficult to access you may wish to hire an installer to help.
Support
While we can't travel to every antenna location in person, we provide as much support as necessary by telephone and email. We are here to help!
Sign up to be our antenna partner