Trueheading AIS-CTRX, Class B is shaping up
On Sunday I had an enjoyable on board visit with another avid marine electronics geek (and Panbo reader), and one of several things he said that stuck with me was, “If I could get a Class B AIS for $1,500, I’d write a check today!” Well, he doesn’t have long to wait, and he’s going to have choices. I understand that the Comar CSB200 will ship in mid-September and today the German AIS shop Y-tronic announced that it is taking pre-orders for this Trueheading AIS-CTRX Class B transponder, which will also be available in mid-September. Some notes about it:
* The BSH type approval is German, but it does supposedly apply to the U.S. and Holger Emmel of Y-tronic writes, “We will of course sell to the US!”
* These units will be “pre-programmed by the dealer with the yacht’s static data (MMSI, type, name, call sign) and can be operated in a stand-alone fashion”. I’m learning that this may be true of all Class B AIS transponders, thus minimizing erroneously programmed units (think DSC issues). And you’ll still be able to get AIS target and GPS position feeds from the unit if you want.
* The AIS-CTRX has “an additional distress button” that sounds interesting, but neither Holger nor I understand exactly how it works (even after reading Trueheading’s own PDF brochure).
Finally, note that these are not the only Class B transponders that will become shipping products in the next few months, nor is the distress button the only unusual feature. Sorry, but I can say no more.
The trueheading brochure indicates support for ITU-R M.493-9, which is the spec for "Digital selective-calling system for use in the maritime mobile service". I imagine that this device is "bilingual" in that it can speak both AIS and DSC. The DSC spec defines a "Distress" message that can be both transmitted and received. It's interesting to note that the Nobeltec software that is featured in the trueheading pdf began supporting NMEA DSC sentences in version 8.0.