Announcing gTrax - AIS Vessel Tracking For The iPhone

Regardless of what you all think about the usefulness of this app for professionals, I hope every weekend warrior with a boat and an iPhone in Puget Sound downloads this thing and learns how to use it. Maybe gTrax should come with a free copy of the COLREGS app for every person who downloads it! (http://doubledogstudios.com/apps/navrules/index.html).

Here is my review of gTrax…where is my T-shirt and coffee card?

"A quality app at a Reasonable Price"
Those of us who follow gCaptain have been waiting for this app for a long time, and I have to say that it was worth the wait. This app is easy to use, even for persons not familiar with the AIS system. If you have a view of the harbor from your home (lucky you), this app will tell you the name and nationality of that ship at the dock. Or maybe you walk the dog along the waterfront and you were wondering where that ship at anchor is from? If you ride the ferry or sail on a cruise ship, this app will tell you were your ship is, real time. Professional mariners will appreciate the functionality. If you work on boats, your friends and family can now see where your vessel is from the iPhone. Pleasure boaters might finally realize that ship in the traffic lanes is making 25 kts and headed right towards them!

-captfish

[quote=john;23399]I have yet to sail on a ship that had an ECDIS… But that will soon change (thank god) when my new ship leaves Korea in March.

Global coverage will be slowly pushed out starting in the coming months. Any ports high on your wish list?[/quote]

At the moment Southern North Sea is high on my list as that’s my (& my friends) present hunting ground but as I am looking into changing jobs (not sure yet) it might change to somewhere in Asia.

Basically the whole world then :smiley:

AIS- Best tool we ever gave pirates!! They know where we are, where were headed, when we will be there…20th century before AIS pirate attacks-few, after AIS whoohoo PIRATE city. GO FIGURE??

[QUOTE=pwrmariner;23700]AIS- Best tool we ever gave pirates!! They know where we are, where were headed, when we will be there…20th century before AIS pirate attacks-few, after AIS whoohoo PIRATE city. GO FIGURE??[/QUOTE]

My assumption is that vessels transiting the pirates playground will have their AIS units turned off. It is allowable under the law if the master chosses to do so.

is available in the ipod touch??

Robert and Doug, I was referring to 47 CFR 80.275, 47 CFR 80.1101 (c)12 and the NVIC 8-01 as amended by Change 01.

Both Class A and Class B AIS devices must be certified by both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Coast Guard before being marketed or sold in the U.S. FCC rules require that certification first be obtained from the Coast Guard. The FCC Laboratory will coordinate review of applications for certification of AIS equipment with the United States Coast Guard to ensure that the equipment meets all applicable international standards and requirements.

While I have worked as a pilot with a laptop (using the neat little pilot plug that is required for vessels over 1600t), it was equipment that met technical requirements for shipboard use by the US. Coast Guard (for the FCC), as spelled out in part in the CFR’s stated above and links below. Maybe gTrax can get approval, or maybe the software that it is working with is already approved. It would be worth checking into.

Any equipment that is placed in the wheelhouse, has to be Coast Guard approved. It may be a last resort to bring you own equipment with you. But regardless of how great it works, if it is not approved, it may cause problems in court. I don’t agree with it, necessarily, but it is one of the “legal” problems in our profession. Regulations, regulations, regulations…

Coast Guard Certification Requirements

Certification requirements for Class A AIS are described in 47 CFR 80.275, 47 CFR 80.1101(c)12 and in the Coast Guard’s Navigational and Vessel Inspection Circular (NVIC) 8-01, as amended by Change 01, Approval of Navigation Equipment for Ships. NVIC 8-01 describes the certification process for AIS and other navigation equipment described under SOLAS V. Note that applications should be submitted to Commandant (CG–521), the new routing code replacing G-MSE and G-PSE.
Certification requirements for Class B AIS equipment are described in 47 CFR 80.231(c) as well as 47 CFR 1101(c)12.

I realize (NVIC’s are not the law), but cfr’s are.

Ok I get it now, I did not realize you were referring specifically to AIS equipment. Gotcha.

[QUOTE=Luck.Runs.Out;23804]is available in the ipod touch??[/QUOTE]

Yes. It works on both the iPhone AND iPod touch!

Yea, but only if your iTouch is on wifi…not so good entering port!

John,

Not sure if you saw Feb/March edition of Marine Electronics & Communications…they had a piece on iPhone apps and gTrax gets a mention.

Excellent, thanks for the link!

Dear Administrator, I don’t know have you tried this gTrax or it is just a kind of advertisement but I did use it because my job requires it and I think it does not work proper and there are much better vessel tracking systems like the free web based VesselFinder (www.vesselfinder.com)

I agree fully, it would be foolish to use this for navigational purposes.

Where we continue to disagree is in the common sense of the average mariner.

The other point is understanding the limitations of the systems you are using.

For example many voyage plans are done using Microsoft Excel or shareware programs like Waypoint for Windows.

Both have bugs that can cause serious navigational errors so should these programs both stamp “Not For Navigational Use” on them?

Should they be banned from use on the bridge altogether?

The advantage of an iPhone app over a bridge system is speed.

On the bridge we are all being overwhelmed by technology and communication but, in fact, it’s not the information that’s overwhelming us, it’s the lost time it takes to organize and process this data that’s causing the problem.

Also what about non-critical tasks? Say you want to DSC a nearby ship.

It’s much more efficient to bring gTrax to the GMDSS console than it is to walk over to the AIS… scroll through the MKD of an AIS display… try to figure out which ship is the right one (this is easier on ships that have ecdis… but not all do) write down the MMSI number… walk over to the GMDSS console and retype it.

Using this program you can perform this duty in 30 seconds but without it making this dsc call would take 2-5 minutes (assuming you wrote down the correct numbers).

The extra 1.5-4.5 minutes you saved by using gTrax can now be used on a more important task.

Like anything you need to know the limitations of the system and verify the data.

I would not trust an excel voyage plan without verifying the results manually just as I would not use gTrax without verifying the data on a class approved ship systems.

Whenever we get new equipment or software on the bridge I always ignore it during my first few watches and test it when there is free time available on someone else’s watch (with their permission, of course).

Personally I will certainly be testing the app out on the bridge while I’m off duty.

Last it’s simple to use. ECDIS and AIS systems approval does not care about user interface design and it was the complexity of the ecdis system contributed to the Cosco Busan hitting a bridge.

Even earlier in the error chain of that incident the complexity led to the pilot’s reluctance to learn the system. Now what if the pilot (or an 17 year old cadet!) had gTrax on his iphone (say to monitor his next job from the car)?

Within 30 seconds of launching the app it would have been clear he was not lined up on the proper heading.

So while I still agree fully, it would be foolish to use this for navigational purposes, I do not think it should be banned from use on the bridge because, like anything, it has it’s uses and limitations and it is up to the watchkeeper to understand these and only use the program for non-critical tasks… then verify his findings.

Circling around to my initial point… gCaptain was built on trusting our forum members.

I don’t think we need to provide a big pop-up box saying “The ideas presented in the forum are not verified and should not be used in the navigation of a vessel” just like I’m not going to build a big pop-up in gTrax saying“

This app has not been verified by class and, therefore, should not be used for navigational purposes”.

The members of gCaptain are smart enough to know when a forum poster is giving dangerous advice and they are also smart enough to know not to ignore their class approved ECDIS.


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