Hi Meindert/Dave,

I tried this today. I get a big file with AIVDM messages from Ship
Ploter site, and created a task on Hyperterminal and direct it to send
to COM1 serial port, where is my 276C but I do not see anithing haping
and I can not say if the messages was being sent to output COM1 port.

I tried process the file with Ship Ploter, he accepts the file, read
and process it, showing the messages and the ships list, but does not
plot them in the map; I do not know if it was sending the messages in
the NMEA out (same COM1 on the laptop where is pluged my 276C.

I think that a real test with a real AIS receiver is a must to test
this thing. I want to know if Garmin will support the AIS in order to
make a decision on selling my 276C now and buy a Si-Tex chart ploter or
wait for AIS on 276C. It is a dificult decision, since I am a Garmin
customer for more than 10 yrs now, having had about 10 or more gps
receivers from them.

I know that there is other available solutions now, the AIS radar and
the AIS engine from NASA with a PC software, are good alternatives,
but my laptop consumes 4 Ah and my batery banks does not support this
24 hs a day. Sailing a boat at nigth in bad wether with a laptop in
the desk and running the engine to charge the bateries is out of my
mind. The AIS Radar is somewhat ugly and is not waterprof (humidity in
a sail boat is always high) and does not have an NMEA output wich
could be used in case I want to se the ships in the chart plot.

I will thanks very much for any help here

Regards

Pascal