Algoway reported position 10/23

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Mr Link
Posts: 1198
Joined: December 6, 2014, 3:43 pm

Re: Algoway reported position 10/23

Unread post by Mr Link »

Yes. The AIS transmitter on the ship transmits a latitude and longitude, along with the MMSI number which identifies the ship. This gets picked up by a shore-based radio receiver, which uploads the data, to either a public or private database on the internet. Then ship tracking programs, like Marine Traffic regularly pole these databases for new information, and import it into their own database. There it is referenced to their database of vessel names and then processed into a format that can be displayed on a mapping program.

Each one of these steps requires digital communication and that provides an opportunity for electronic or software glitches to corrupt the data. Showing a false location isn't the most common error, but it does happen rather frequently if you monitor AIS enough. More frequently you see locations assigned to the wrong ship, outdated locations shown as current locations, and items such as ship name, speed and bearing obviously incorrect.

The good thing in all this: I doubt the officers on the Algoway cared at all, since they knew where they were the entire time.
Kathy C

Algoway reported position 10/23

Unread post by Kathy C »

I was visiting a friend in Lorain, OH yesterday afternoon and observed the Algoway on the Black River heading out to Lake Erie. When I looked on my Marine Traffic app, the ship's reported position was about 4 miles east of its actual position, in Sheffield Lake (on land!). This morning I used the "past track" feature to show the ship's movement in the last 24 hours and it shows a very odd course that is clearly not accurate. Is this common? I've never seen it before.
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