ShipPlotter Software enables you to monitor ship movements anywhere in the World

Ships within VHF range of your position using the Universal Automatic Identification System (AIS) can be plotted directly.

All ships over 300 tons must carry an AIS system.

During the last decade, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has established a standard and mandatory requirement for AIS equipment under the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention.

Today more than 60,000 ships world-wide carry AIS transponders.

 Ports and national coastal lines are being equipped with AIS infrastructure consisting of AIS base stations and networks for applications such as Vessel Traffic Service (VTS), National Security Monitoring, Fleet Management, and Search & Rescue (SAR) coordination.

Tuning to one of two channels with the ShipPlotter software running on your PC, will enable you to see the position of all the large ships manoeuvring in your area - together with information about their destination, ETA, and even the dimensions of each vessel.

The two frequencies used are 161.975 and 162.025  MHz

You can also have your own images of the ships display on screen.

There are dedicated receivers such as Comar & NASA - but a radio with a discriminator output and a sound card are all that is needed.

As the system relies on 'sharing' data you can see ships worldwide with the data being uploaded from sharers in another part of the World.

A demo copy of the software can be download - HERE

There is also a most excellent forum - HERE

You can also check charts on-line - HERE