AIS vessels 1, 2, 3 & 4.

Open forum for regional discussion. (extension of the Information Search page for off topic & personal discussion)
guest

Re: AIS vessels 1, 2, 3 & 4.

Unread post by guest »

I assume you are referring to the Boatnerd AIS system. Those are real or synthetic AIS aids to navigation. They mark buoy locations.

They do not transmit any special code identifying them as buoys, so when they first show up a Boatnerd volunteer (me) has to manually identify them as aids to navigation. Otherwise the system thinks they are vessels. Once that is done (one time only) they only show up in the aids to navigation layer, which is, by default turned off. You can turn it on by clicking on the layers icon at the top right of the screen and then checking the box for Navigation Aid. If you also click the Charts layer you will see that the aids to navigation are often at real buoy locations, or at radio towers on land.

I will try to manually classify these buoys in the next few days. Its honestly been about 2 months since I have done that.

AIS is a wonderful tool, but it is not 100% automated like some people think. Ship crews can enter the wrong info, databases can be incorrect or out of date, and equipment can revert to default settings when unused, all resulting in confusion.
Guest

AIS vessels 1, 2, 3 & 4.

Unread post by Guest »

Lately I have noticed AIS vessels numbered 1 thru 4 on Lake Erie on the AIS map - mostly in the Western Basin. When you look for information on the vessels there are no photos or info...are these military vessels doing excercises?
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