It would seem an easy task of the receiver designer to output data sentences
with just the header information when no transmitter is in range. Really
though, I would blame the Raymarine implementation. When you run AIS in
various PC charting software, you either see targets or not. No red X's, no
problems.

"Tapio Sokura" wrote in message
. ..
sw wrote:
Thanks for the info. It's too bad in a way that you get the red X even
though the AIS receiver is hooked up and running. It strikes me as
confusing. My guess is that there will be improvements in the software
down
the road.

The problem is that when no AIS transmitters are in range, the AIS
receiver isn't receiving anything and thus it doesn't output anything on
its serial port. This means that the device on the other end of the AIS
serial cable has no way of knowing whether there simply is no AIS
traffic within range or whether the cable is cut, or if the receiver is
malfunctioning. There is no "keepalive" so that the AIS receiver could
tell serial port listeners that it is still alive and kicking.

Tapio