"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...

Too bad boats don't all have a beacon transponder like airplanes with
any sense do. The beacon system does great tracking with its powerful
old transmitters. Navaids should all have beacon transponders, too,
instead of idiotic blinking light bulbs as if this were 1925. Nothing
in Navaids makes any sense. The damned Charleston Jetties should be
topped with towers full of airport strobe beacons and an ILS, too.
Maritime navigation lives in the stone age.... Even Morning Dew's
crew of boys would be alive if the damned jetties weren't black and
invisible, nostalgia or no nostalgia.

snip

Of course, boating, ships and the USCG would resist a change to a
beacon nav system like it would bubonic plague. Any change for the
better is to be resisted at all costs....like GMDSS was.

snip

All the more reason to press for a beacon system like aircraft use.
It's been working great since the Korean War! Isn't it time we
upgraded??

snip

The sooner a mandatory beacon transponder program starts, the better.

Larry, your prayers have been heard. By the end of 2004, all SOLAS vessel
are required to have an AIS system, which does exactly what you want. It
transmits position, course, ROT and other info on a VHF packet radio-like
network.

Meindert