Interesting idea. The AIS protocol is already somewhat complicated as much
as there is not a lot of channel reserved for digital usage. But in your
idea, where does the weather data would come from ? Are you assuming that
on board personel would input their perception of the weather or that basic
weather station would be directly connected to the VHF ?



"Bangtabuck" wrote in message
ps.com...
I'm an engineering student and we're into sea-related businesses. My
group's idea was to share weather data between ships automatically,
allowing high-traffic areas to be relativily closely monitored. The
data would probably flow on a radio frequency, although we might be
able to compress it enough that it wouldn't interfere with voice
traffic. However, none of us have experience with boats, and we were
wondering if anyone had any insight into the validity of the idea.