Q: What is the basic setup for AISRec?
A: You need at least a rtlsdr dongle, Install the driver for the dongle. You need also an AIS antenna or equivalent VHF antennas, correct adapters for the cable to the dongle input (it can be MCX or SMA). The antenna should be put outside away from indoor interference sources and at a high place to get good signals.
Q: What can I do to improve the reception of dongles?
A: For most rtlsdr dongles, you can get very good reception when you are at sea. For the places surrounded by FM stations, you can use a dedicated AIS filter to filter out those strong interferences.
Q: How to register my copy of AISRec?
A: The step is simple. You can find in the readme.txt in the zip package of AISRec. When you run AISRec, click the button “Appl. Code” on the about dialog and a file "ApplCode.txt" will be generated.
Send the file to us by email (See Contact Us) and a file "License.txt" will be returned. Use the returned file with your copy of AISRec. We offer your egistrations of maximum three machines for every free registration.
One "License.txt" is needed for every machine for all versions of AISRec. The "License.txt" can be used for future updates.
Q: How to send my feadback?
A: You can send your feadback by email. A description of your setup can be more helpful. You can state in your email whether you want to be listed in the Feedbacks.
Q: How to require new features and report bugs?
A: You are welcome to do this by email at this moment.
Q: What is the difference between Trial, Lite and Pro versions?
A: The Trial version is the version without registration. AISRec can run in the minimum mode with limits on time and number of received messages for every run.
The Lite version is the standard version for all rtlsdr dongles. AISRec can run in the optimal mode without any restriction.
The Pro version is used with AIS dongles with a dedicated filter. The Pro version allows some more features for the AISRec dongles.
You can turn on some computationally extensive functions.
Q: When will be the AISRec for raspberry pi 2 and android available?
A: They were finished with AISRec core 2 and were running. It still needs time to test with AISRec core 3.0. They will be distributed in the same way as AISRec for windows.
Q: Where is the support for Airspy?
A: It is available in AISRecWinFull 2.1.
Q: How to create a AIS receiving station with wifi and ethernet?
A: You can have many choices.
1. A laptop or a tablet with ssd and wifi is the most common choice. With a proper installation, you can make it a mobile AIS receiver with a display and batteries.
2. One intel CPU stick with a HDMI port could do a very compact remote station for you. You can login remotely to control AISRec as the stick has embedded wifi. It is quite cheap.
3. A cheap solid mini intel PC box (size of two handy phones) with a compact metal cover, no fans, serial ports, vga, hdmi, ssd, ethernet and wifi can be a "low power" but powerful choice. You could fasten the dongle to the metal box.
4. The raspberry pi 2 could be the choice with the lowest power comsuption but not so powerful.
5. Your android phone could be another choice.
Q: How to install my dongle to the framework of my machine?
A: The simplest way to do is directly plug in your dongle to the USB port of your machine. This works well when the USB port is strong enough to hold the dongle with cables.
The best way to do is to 3D print a cover for you dongle. This cover puts your machine and dongle together. You can have your favourite cable connector on the cover.
Q: Why my copy of AISRec cannot find a device?
A: 1. Install the right driver to the right device using zadig.exe
2. Close other SDR software when using AISRec. Some SDR software ocuppy devices when they are running.
Q: Why I can only get the ApplCode.txt when running AISRec as admin?
A: The solution is to unlock the whole folder of AISRec by changing the properties of this folder.
Windows locks folders downloaded from internet.
Q: What is the best gain settings for AISRec?
A: You can try auto, IF = 9 for all devices. For airspy, you can also try preset = 21.
Q: What kind of filters do you use for AIS?
A: We use two types of filters. One is one LC filter with 10 MHz bandwidth centered at 162 MHz. The other is one tiny SAW filter with a TA0395A chip.
SAW filter
Q: How to setup and access the TCP server?
A: The TCP server listens on 0.0.0.0 with the assigned port. The active Local IP address changes when you change your network cards or your routing table.
If you want to access the TCP server locally, you can set your host IP address to 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) in the TCP client (for example, OpenCPN) despite of what the Local IP displays.
If you need to access the server from another machine in the network, you need to set the host IP address in your TCP client on the machine to the IP address of the remote TCP host (Here the Local IP on AISRecWinFull).
Q: How to use the serial output with another software with serial inputs only on the same machine?
A: You easily use virtual com pairs for this application. You can find the open source project:
com0com
https://sourceforge.net/projects/com0com/
or one commercial product, for example,