AIS with eS98 missing targets

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I find the AIS a great safety tool, and it makes sailing on a busy body of water (SF Bay) more enjoyable. If it works as it should.

I had problems with my older Raymarine AIS and the eS98 and decided sailing is better than trouble shooting so I invested in a new AIS650. To integrate it with my backup navigation system (OpenCPN) I purchased an Actisense Nema 2000 (with Raymarine STng adapter) to USB. Thought all was working fine.

Today I heard Vessel Traffic Service (I typically listen to VHF 14 VTS on the central bay) describe a vessel that I wanted to "vector". I couldn't find it at all, and in fact found NO vessels in the Anchorage 9 area of the Bay. This didn't make sense to me. I checked my OpenCPN, and there were a number of vessels in Anchorage 9. OpenCPN showed them, Raymarine did NOT.

I also heard of traffic coming into the Bay from the ocean, so checked that out and NO traffic in the entrance to the Bay found! OpenCPN, using the exact same data input DID find traffic. I also checked Marine Traffic, an internet tool, for the inbound traffic. I never use this for navigation, but sure enough it showed traffic coming into SF Bay in the shipping channel.

I am so tired of troubleshooting Raymarine MFD/AIS issues. I want to sail, safely. I will also head out to do some coastal cruising very soon and want working AIS especially for that.

Do I have a setting wrong? Wiring wrong? Is the eS98 having problems with integrating AIS? I just want to get this working. Between the old AIS and this new AIS I've spent hours trying to get the system to work.

Attached are five photos. Three show the entrance to SF Bay, all taken within minutes of each other. One is the eS98 display showing NO AIS targets in the entrance to SF Bay. One other is OpenCPN showing TWO vessels transiting in the channel. One other is a screen shot from my smartphone from Marine Traffic and it also shows TWO vessels transiting in the channel.

The other two photos show the system we have on board.

What gives?

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Robert,

It was good to speak with you this afternoon Robert. Per our conversation, LightHouse II software is designed to support display targets for any other transmitting AIS-equipped vessels within range. Up to 100 targets can be displayed simultaneously (i.e. the nearest 100 AIS targets within proximity to your vessel). You can either display all targets or just dangerous targets to reduce the amount of clutter within the Chart application. In this case, you may want to consider changing this configuration setting to display only dangerous targets, thereby permitting targets at greater ranges to be displayed. The specification of the 100 AIS target limit may be found within Section 12.1: AIS Overview of the LightHouse II Release 19 Operating Instructions as conversed. Given the target rich environment of San Francisco Bay, this target limit is was quite likely reached prior to including targets within Anchorage 9. Once in coastal cruising waters, we are certain that you will find the collision avoidance features to be quite satisfactory. An alternate feature suggestion which may be worthy of consideration is to have a configuration setting which excludes vessels having a status of At Anchor, Moored, and/or those have a SOG of 0.0 to permit tracking of a greater number of vessels which are actually underway. A feature request will be logged accordingly.

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