"RayD" wrote in :

This looks like a useful accessory, especially on those long offshore
night watches. Anyone have any experience using it w/Nobeltec?
http://www.milltechmarine.com/SR161.htm

I installed a Milltech SR161 and an antenna splitter on BlueJacket just
before moving it from the Chesapeake to Ft. Lauderdale and I must say that
I was very happy with the performance. My VHF antenna is on top of my 60'
mast and most of the time I saw ships at 40 miles or less. On a less
frequent basis I would see ships at 40-60 miles away and I even saw a
cruise ship at 88 miles away. I was amazed and I realize that it must have
been some strange skip to hear a vessel so far away. In areas like
Norfolk, Charleston and Ft. Lauderdale I regularly had 50+ targets that I
was tracking.

I used a RayMarine C80 to display the targets, but I also had AIS output
available to my laptop. The C80 would display a "no AIS" alarm when I was
in fringe ares where a single ship's signal would fade in and out. This
caused the alarm to keep going off and there's no way to disable this.

Despite the "no AIS" and a few other problems that I saw, I wouldn't be
without this. MARPA on a small sailboat underway can't begin to compare
with the accuracy of AIS and its fun to see information about targets such
as names, size, type and destination. I do look forward to getting a
transponder when the prices come down as I want the other vessels out there
to see me as well as I see them.

-- Geoff