Ask Garmin: Contacting an AIS target

Today's Ask Garmin question comes from Dave L. in Florida who writes: "I just installed a new Garmin chartplotter, VHF radio and an AIS receiver on my boat. With this equipment, what's the process of contacting an AIS target that appears on my plotter screen?"

Thanks for the good question, Dave. At Garmin, we know that having an AIS traffic monitoring system can play an invaluable role in crowded channels or under low-visibility conditions. If it's late at night and there are a lot of big ships and commercial traffic around you, an AIS system gives you increased situational awareness when you need it most. And with our new communications products, we've made identifying and contacting a target quick and easy with the "call with radio" function. When a Garmin AIS (AIS 300, AIS 600 or VHF 300 AIS) is integrated with a Garmin chartplotter (GPSMAP 441, 541, 546, 700 and 4000–7000 series) and VHF radio (VHF 200, 300 or VHF 300 AIS) via NMEA 2000, users can actually initiate a call to any MMSI target directly from the chartplotter by selecting the "call with radio" function. This function is unique to Garmin, and is a great safety feature, and a huge time saver. As indicated by Dave's question, with an AIS receiver, users will see an AIS target on the chartplotter screen. From there, you can highlight that AIS target on your screen, see the information about that target, and immediately call the target with a ship-to-ship call from your VHF. You don't have to type in any MMSI numbers, you don't have to do a "General Call" on channel 16 – simply highlight the target, review their information and call with VHF – all at the press of a button!

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