Garmin AIS transceiver vs transponder

New R29 and as confused as I can probably get on this. The boat comes with a functioning transceiver (receive AIS).

Is a transponder plug and play as a replacement? It seems like it would also need a separate dedicated GOS?

Trying to understand what would be required to move to a transponder, and honestly trying to figure out if it’s truly worth it.

Welcome any thoughts advice. Hardly know what to ask.

I believe the radio itself is the receiver. IF you want to transmit an AIS signal you have to get a separate module that will plug into the nmea 2000 header. Ranger did not make it easy to access but you will need an antenna and power for the module as well.

I just did a swap on my 2015 R31. I had a garmin AIS 300 which only received. I upgraded to a garmin AIS 800 which sends and receives. It has built in GPS so no need for a dedicated GPS antenna except if you want on (I grabbed a cheap older Garmin GA 38 antenna since I wanted one). It was a plug and play minus one adapter I needed for one plug, but I needed that adapter because I bought my AIS 800 used off eBay and it was missing some things.

If you buy new or buy used and it's wiped clean, you can easily plug it into your computer and program on your boat information including your MSSI. Just don't mess it up because once your program it the first time, you cannot do it again unless you are factory authorized Garmin.

Let me know if you have questions. Happy to help.

THANKS CALCMAN -

This was my impression from trying to read through this; the GPS antenna was the only thing that would be 'new' to the current AIS 300 system, but most folks seemed to represent that the in body GPS for the AIS 800 was good enough that if placed in the helm reasonably well, it would get signal.

My old 1960's brain can't quite grok how any GPS functions without line of site to the sky, but I guess the proof is in the pudding.

THANK you...I'll chew on this a bit more.

BOSCBIJI said:

THANKS CALCMAN -

This was my impression from trying to read through this; the GPS antenna was the only thing that would be 'new' to the current AIS 300 system, but most folks seemed to represent that the in body GPS for the AIS 800 was good enough that if placed in the helm reasonably well, it would get signal.

My old 1960's brain can't quite grok how any GPS functions without line of site to the sky, but I guess the proof is in the pudding.

THANK you...I'll chew on this a bit more.

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My AIS 800 is in the head in an electronics cabinet with at least three levels of fiberglass between it and the sky. GPS works fine. Unrelated to the GPS question, it is recommended for better reception that you replace the standard VHF antenna with one specifically designed for the AIS frequencies.

I'll have to investigate the antenna upgrade. Didn't know that. Mine seems to ping location really well, but maybe it's due to the proximity to stations or the antenna was already upgraded. Always more to learn!

calcman05 said:

I'll have to investigate the antenna upgrade. Didn't know that. Mine seems to ping location really well, but maybe it's due to the proximity to stations or the antenna was already upgraded. Always more to learn!

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I upgrade my VHF antenna. I went with a combo, tuned for AIS and VHF 16. It improved my VHF reception, and AIS performance by a lot. One minor correction to the video... since I published this, I swapped out the 5' white extension for a 4' black extension.

This is an unlisted video I published on YouTube.

Chances are most people who have AIS on these boats do not use a dedicated antenna. It does improve reception, but it’s complex to install.

@calcman05 is right. It’s a pretty easy upgrade if you don’t go with the added antenna like @Submariner did. It would be better that way, but probably not necessary unless you like that sort of tinkering.

A bit of terminology to answer one of your original questions: transceiver = transmitter and receiver. In other words, the AIS 300 is not a transceiver. It’s just a receiver. That’s what comes stock on the R-29 and R-31. You can see other boats with an AIS transceiver, but they cannot see you.

The R-43 comes with either a Garmin AIS 800, or the Vesper Cortex M1, which has both functions and is a transceiver. With this setup, you can see other boats AND they can see you as well.

(FWIW a transponder is something you can reach out to and it will send something different in response, often on a different channel or a different format. That’s actually not how AIS really works. However, you will very often see AIS systems called a transponder, and you can pretty much consider “transponder” and “transceiver” to be equivalent for our purposes. If it is called an “AIS Transponder” it has both transmit and receive functions.)

Should you upgrade to a transceiver? Receiving, IMHO, is a baseline. Every boat that spends much time around other boats, especially, commercial traffic, should have an AIS receive function so you can see other boats even before you can see them visually, and determine if they pose a threat to you. If you are purely around recreational boats it won’t make that much of a difference because relatively few of them actually have an AIS transceiver, so you won’t see much. If you plan to do much cruising in commercial shipping channels, you really should have a transceiver so commercial boats can see you and hail you if needed. I posted a story the other day about a time when we were in sub-quarter mile visibility in Rosario Strait on our R-25. Without both radar and full AIS, we would have turned back and waited out the fog.

Thanks for the responses.

I’ve looked everywhere I can think to look and just can’t find the AIS in our new R29. I’d assume it’s under the helm in the space behind the heads cover panel, but if it’s there it’s sneaky as heck.

BOSCBIJI said:

Thanks for the responses.

I’ve looked everywhere I can think to look and just can’t find the AIS in our new R29. I’d assume it’s under the helm in the space behind the heads cover panel, but if it’s there it’s sneaky as heck.

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I don't believe new new boats come with AIS (other than maybe the 43).

The AIS for an R29 would either go behind the mirror in the head, if it'll fit there... otherwise, it's going to be near the water heater, under the helm seat. (go in through the cave, there's a little cubby/cut out you can look through to see if it's mounted there. I'm installing a AIS (Cortex) on an R29 and that's where I put it. Plenty of space next to the hot water heater.

We had a scary fog incident crossing on the north side of lummi going west to lopez last year. The fog came in quick out of nowhere and locked us in while we were in the shipping channel. I turned on radar and saw an oil tanker closing in, so we made a judgement call to keep going quickly and get out of the way. At that moment I decided I was upgrading to the AIS 800 as another layer of communication and safety. I would do the upgrade again. Very easy.

BOSCBIJI said:

Thanks for the responses.

I’ve looked everywhere I can think to look and just can’t find the AIS in our new R29. I’d assume it’s under the helm in the space behind the heads cover panel, but if it’s there it’s sneaky as heck.

Click to expand...

I believe the radio itself has the receiver built into it. That’s how it is on my 2025 R31. It doesn’t have a transmitter

BOSCBIJI said:

New R29 and as confused as I can probably get on this. The boat comes with a functioning transceiver (receive AIS).

Is a transponder plug and play as a replacement? It seems like it would also need a separate dedicated GOS?

Trying to understand what would be required to move to a transponder, and honestly trying to figure out if it’s truly worth it.

Welcome any thoughts advice. Hardly know what to ask.

Click to expand...

Having been on the bridge of commercial ships, I can say that if you are operating anywhere near commercial shipping, it is definitely worth it, if you want any confidence at all that a ship or tug will see you.

BOSCBIJI said:

Thanks for the responses.

I’ve looked everywhere I can think to look and just can’t find the AIS in our new R29. I’d assume it’s under the helm in the space behind the heads cover panel, but if it’s there it’s sneaky as heck.

Click to expand...

Easy way to tell if you should keep looking or not, just power up all systems onboard then on the Garmin display go into the settings menu, communications, nmea2000 devices and see if there is one listed on the network. It would say AIS300, AIS600, AIS800, etc. if there was one onboard, otherwise you'll only see something like VHF210, VHF215, etc.

I think @Full_O_Fish has it right and that’s the way to check. The R-29 and R-31 come with AIS Receive only. My understanding is that they used to come with the Garmin AIS 300, but the factory has switched equipment a bit and they likely now come with a radio with it built in, likely the Garmin VHF 215.

If that’s correct, and it seems logical, then your upgrade path is identical to the one for a boat that didn’t have AIS at all. If you want a full AIS transceiver, you would get something like a Garmin AIS 800 and just install that.

Thanks folks that all sounds right. We do have AIS receive on the Garmin but the transceiver must heart of the radio function as I can’t find a AIS module anywhere.

You’ve gotten a lot of good advice but I’ll add my twist to the story…our 2013 Ranger Tug R-29 Classic came with a Garmin AIS 300–strictly receive only. I researched online and came close to buying a Garmin AIS 800 which transmits as well as receives…important so you can “see” AND “be seen.” I ended up buying an em-trak B953 Class B AIS Transceiver from Citimarine for $860–actually less than the Garmin 800 but which also includes some wireless connectivity bells & whistles I haven’t yet tried out (I think Bluetooth access to Navionics charts and WiFi capability of some kind).

Citimarine was enormously helpful, programming it with my proper registration and FCC license info at no charge prior to shipment of the unit. (Chat-GPT walked me through the online FCC registration process adequately so it wasn’t too bad an ordeal; you’ll need your FCC license info first to give to the retailer so they can program it for you properly.)

I noticed immediately improved response/update time on my Garmin chartplotter and that even the resolution of targets felt a bit crisper. Our old Garmin 300 was mounted in the electronics cabinet behind the helm station; I’m nearly mechanically inept but it was little more than swapping the old unit out for new one. Much less intimidating that it seemed at first blush.