wrote in message
oups.com...
Sorry, here is the direct link to the PDF -
http://www.uscg.mil/d13/units/vts/AISSRSFinal.pdf

Larry wrote:
NO bouy has, or ever will have, an AIS system in it. There MAY be an AIS
repeater in his area, but it will be on a real tower, not a bouy. To
mark
the bouy's position, a shore station may send the bouy's information,
which
AIS is designed to do but, of course as usual, America is 20 years behind
Europe in implementing everything, any more.
[...]

Larry, Mark, it sounds like you're both right. The buoy repeater described
in the link is surprisingly like what I had conjectured in my previous
posting -- it is more of a remote receiver (transceiver?) than a true
repeater. I haven't been able to find details of *any* type of repeater
deployment in the San Francisco area, but I assume that there may be some in
operation, used to fill in radio dead-spots.

Still, as far as explaining the reception I was getting (from a ship 673 NM
distant), I can't see any reason for wanting to repeat that signal in the
S.F. Bay area. S.F. VTS may be interested in what a distant remote receiver
buoy is hearing, but they would get that data through their land network,
and would be unlikely to re-transmit it over the air. Tropospheric Ducting
is my theory, and I'm sticking to it!

-Paul