I am thinking of adding the Smart Radio SR161 AIS receiver to the
electronics on the boat. I would use the unit to connect via a serial cable
to a PC with the appropriate charting software, e.g. SeaClear II or Rose
Point.

It would interface with the NMEA output from the Raymarine 300 SDGPS. Has
anyone tried this? does it work reliably? (it is manufactured in China so it
is probably not the greatest)

The product description on the U.S. dealer's website
http://www.milltechmarine.com/ makes this statement "Can an be used to
consolidate incoming NMEA positional data from a GPS into a combined
high-speed data stream on a single serial port." - I wonder how is this
accomplished. Can the single RS232 serial port be "split" with one cable
going to the Raymarine and one to the PC??

I would use the existing VHF antenna on the boat - it is hooked up to a
Shipmate RS8400 VHF radio. I don't know if the antenna is "maximized" to 162
Mhz" as required by the SR 161 AIS receiver... any comments on this would
also be helpful.

Thanks in advance

cvj