Do dive/liveaboard boats carry AIS transponders?

[simon43]

The recent events about the missing Malaysian Airlines plane got me interested (as a radio ham) to visit the websites of flightradar24 and marinetraffic. The former provides a realtime map of aircraft locations (all commercial planes carry an ADS-B transponder), whilst the latter website providea a realtime map of ship (cargo, pleasure, passenger) locations, for those craft which are fitted with an AIS transponder.

In my region, signal coverage for both aircraft and ships is limited, so I offered (and my offer was accepted), to 'host' both an aircraft ADS-B receiver and a marine AIS receiver at my home near to the airport, the data being supplied in real-time to the above websites so that planes and marine craft in my coverage area can be displayed/tracked.

For aircraft, I intend to 'beam' my directional antenna out over the Indian Ocean, in the direction of the trans-ocean flight paths. Being UHF/low microwave, the ADS-B coverage may extend to perhaps 50 - 100 nautical miles.

But for marine craft, the VHF AIS signal should be able to be received over a wider area of the Andaman Sea.

So, coming back to the poiint of this post.

Do dive boats in this area carry AIS transponders? If so, then I could 'beam' my receiving antenna in a north-west direction, so that it covers the oceans up to and beyond the Similan Islands etc.

Perhaps those who work in the dive/liveaboard business could advise.

Thanks

Simon

[LivinginKata]

I browse the AIS Live Ships web site http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ and I have never noticed any dive boats being displayed. So i would say that dive boats don't have the AIS system on board.

[stevenl]

No, they don't.

[NomadJoe]

Pretty sure not. Never heard of it.

[simon43]

Thanks for the replies. It's not an issue for me if these boats don't carry a transponder. The AIS receiver is provided to me free of charge by marinetraffic.com - I'll install the system and see what sort of coverage I can get over the Andaman Sea for cargo, pleasure and passenger boats.

I have never noticed any dive boats being displayed

Well you won't - there is scant AIS radio coverage right now in the Andaman - it's a VHF system. I note that there is a marinetraffic receiver located in south Phuket, probably at Ao Chalong, but it's coverage seems rather limited.

[LivinginKata]

Well you won't - there is scant AIS radio coverage right now in the Andaman - it's a VHF system. I note that there is a marinetraffic receiver located in south Phuket, probably at Ao Chalong, but it's coverage seems rather limited.

Interesting that should say that. I started using marinetraffic to identify the passenger cruise liners passing by Kata. About a year ago (my guess) there was zero traffic shown on that web site in and around Phuket Island. I could see vessels departing for Penang in direction of Phuket, but then they vanished. These past few months I see all the cruise liners and other vessels now displayed in the Phuket area. So perhaps that was all due to that Chalong receiver being installed.

[simon43]

If you go to:

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/index/stations/all

and enter Thailand as the country, you then see a total of 4 AIS receivers, including one in south Phuket, (according to when I zoom in on the map...)

[LivinginKata]

Yes, I see that one station at the very south/west tip of Phuket - Station #1493