As we found way to get GPS position on the chart in one hand, and AIS information about who-is-who around in another would it be great to combine those two things on one single chart? Sure, yes. We need just to find plotting software that may accept AIS and GPS information to reflect it simultaneously.
The program called FUGAWI may do that for us. It accepts a wide range of different chart formats as well as have compatibility with third party GPS sensors, including Garmin’s models. It’s also able to listen the RS-232 ports for NMEA 0183 information sent by other devises. Bingo, this is exactly what we need – get the ShipPlotter to produce the AIS info as it was a separate device and stream it into FUGAWI listening port.
This is how the Puerto Rico port chart looks in program interface just with GPS only (position marked with crosshair):
Though, we still need the scanner with VHF band and capable to receive signal at 161.950 MHz. And Sipplotter software to receive and demodulate the AIS signal.
However, we don’t need the separate chart to plot the ships around on it. what we can do is redirect Shipplotter to output information in NMEA format to external port, whatever the program collects from radio:
There is another piece of software that creates bridge between FUGAWI and Shipplotter : Virtual Com ports emulator.
We create pair of virtulal RS-232 ports that connected between themselves through null-modem interface. Imagine shortcut from your computer microphone and headphone with short cable. One program talks yet another listens. :
This program is paid software bu allows to create one pair for free as a full-functioning demo. The only thing is correctly set up FUGAWI port to receive and Shipplotter to send, not opposite. And here, we have ships information as overlay on top of chart and current position :
