Tech1_ais_A long over-due report on the feasebility for skippers of a AIS/RTL-SDR receiver

 Tech1_ais

A long over-due report on the feasibility for skippers of a AIS/RTL-SDR receiver

Portable setup: commercial AIS antenna -> coaxial cable -> LNA, linear amplifier -> USB RTL-SDR v3 dongle -> USB cable -> portable computer | AIS decoder, rtl_ais / OpenCPN v4x| -> WiFi hotspot of the portable computer -> iPad |SEAiq

Tested during a charter of 15 days.  each morning,  just needed a couple of minutes to had everything up and running. Fast, reliable data for ais tragets up to 20 miles. The linear amplifier, by providing a stronger signal,  seemed to reduce the load and heating of the dongle.  RTL-SDR v3 dongle  far better than an older v2 dongle, not sure why.

Bottom line: it worked even better than I expected. Good  as a portable solution for ais receiving when chartering and other occasional situations. Could be made a more permanent/clean setup in any cruising boat. Of course , not a replacement for a good AIS transponder.