Designed to meet the SOLAS requirements Chapter 5 Safety of Navigation - in Regulation 19 - 2.4 to all of ships of 300 gross tonnage and upwards engaged on international voyages, and for simple installation onto a ships bridge, and with quick and easy access for repair or replacement. As well as being intrinsically tough and rugged, the system also features a sophisticated touch screen minimum display for intuitive operation. With its touch-screen LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) minimum display, this AIS transponder transmits the ship’s data to other vessels as well as shore-based VTS (Vessel Tracking Systems). Utilizing various VHF channels, this is ship-borne station consists of an integral GPS engine for timing, one VHF transmitter, three VHF receivers and a computer. Interface this with an external GPS for navigation, an antenna, a gyrocompass, and an optional ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information System) or ARPA (Automatic Radar Plotting Aid) display system and you have everything required to comply with the mandatory carriage requirements that comes into effect July 1, 2002. Static and voyage related data is transmitted every six minutes, while the dynamic information is transmitted between 2 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on the ships navigational status and speed. Short messages from ships or shore stations can be inserted into the AIS message structure that contain such information as; notices to mariners, navigational warnings, weather forecast and SAR (Search and Rescue) communications etc.