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NEWSFLASH: SOLAR POWER ENERGY - IT REALLY WORKS!
After 19 months on the water, the solar-powered ship MS Turanor PlanetSolar finished its journey around the globe in the Hercule Harbor in Monaco on May 4.
“We are extremely happy to have achieved this first world tour with solar energy,” the ship’s captain Swiss Raphael Domjan said from the dock. “We have shown that we have the technologies as well as the knowledge to become sustainable and safeguard our blue planet.”
Amanda H. Miller MAY 04, 2012
"A WORD FROM THE BRIDGE"
Based in the National Maritime College of Ireland in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork, SEA-Tech provides tactical IT consulting, technical professional services and project management as well as rapid response technical support to the marine sector in Ireland and overseas.
Established in 2005 and operating under the philosophy of “we do I.T. the way you want it done”, we operate as both a prime contractor for research and academic, coastal and marine engineering, yachting, SMEs and as a subcontractor for marine engineering, shipping agents, chandlers, IT vendors, integrators. Our engineering power and consulting are the backbone of successfull projects.
Still we are very different from any other I.T. Company in Ireland. We are IT experts with marine experience, whose primary goal is to serve you, our customer. Sure, other people say this too - but do they really mean it? Do they live it? We do - and our existing clients will tell you so. SEA-Tech has earned a strong reputation for delivering value in line with customer requirements both on land and at sea.
Founder & Director
Last night was pitch dark in Cork, the harbour waters were almost 
spooky, black waters and no light. The moon is on a waxing crescent right now, and we merely had a ten percent moonlight last night. It reminded me of that year I was based with my regiment in French Guyana and during exercises we would sail at full speed in the dark with nothing but stars to guide us. Now technology have improved... In the comfort of my study at home, I was listening to harbour operations on my scanner and decided I would test my new AIS receiver.
A.I.S., for those who aren't too familiar with it, stands for Automatic Identification System. It is not a RADAR at all, in fact it would rather be the opposite. Large commercial vessels over 300 tons and all passenger vessels, by law, should all have one aboard. Basically the A.I.S. transmitter is connected to the GPS (or has its own independent GPS chip embedded) and keeps broadcasting every few second a radio message on channels 87 and 88, giving loads of information that are very useful when you are sailing in a pitch dark night and want to avoid a close encounter with a supertanker...
Basicaly the data received by the AIS unit are encoded in NMEA 
sentences (64-bit plain text). A sample is shown below:
!AIVDM,1,1,,B,1INS<8@P001cnWFEdSmh00bT0000,0*38
Messages include the following three basic types:
1. Dynamic Information, such as vessel's position, speed, current status, course and rate of turn.
2. Static Information, such as vessel's name, IMO number, MMSI number, dimensions.
3. Voyage-specific Information, such as destination, ETA and draught.
Read this very interesting page if you want to familiarise yourself with A.I.S.
Tonight I am playing with RadarGadget (Mirrorbow Technologies Ltd) which is almost 100% software based.
It looks like a USB memory stick and all it does is to grab the radio signal, demodulate it, and if you are equipped with a plotting software like Polar Navy, Shipplotter, or AIS Dispatcher for example, you will see vessels around you moving. Mind you, you won't pick a container half submerged or a storm because A.I.S. is not a radar, all it does is grabbing a radio signal broadcasted by another vessel. Most sailing vessels in Ireland don't have any... Skippers don't want the good wife to know where they are, maybe...
Anyway, this USB A.I.S. is the smallest of its kind. I should have a small stock at my
workshop in the next couple of weeks. I have tested it successfully on Windows 7 and Mac OS-X, but later this week I will have a go at Linux Centos. I am planning to demo it during our Marine I.T. Course in NMCI. Most A.I.S. devices on the market are serial port, some are USB, most are designed for recreational use and usually a bit bulky. This one fits in your pocket. Down side is, it's a bit fragile where it connects with the antenna cable. So I use my two way radio antenna instead. Simply brilliant... and affordable too!
Feel free to call to the workshop to see one if you are interested... They can be fitted to your laptop in less than an hour in most cases.
I will definitely recommend those devices to the students in the Marine Data Communication Course!
Message on the wall...
Aine Wrenne, Estate Manager, South Ring Business Park
