How can I tell if my A100 is transmitting?

The best way to confirm whether or not your A100 is transmitting information is to ask another AIS equipped vessel (within the near vicinity) if they can see your AIS information on their own display. Relying on AIS websites to confirm if your vessel is working or not will not always give a clear indication if this is the case as most websites do not show real-time AIS information.

You can also check the A100’s display to see if the “TX” indicator appears periodically. Remember, the A100 (like all AIS devices) does not transmit permanently, hence why the “TX” symbol is not always shown.

It is possible to conduct an AIS communication test with another AIS equipped vessel. This test sends an AIS message to another vessel and checks for a response. The AIS transceiver will display a list of vessels from which one can be selected for a communication test.
This feature can be selected from the ‘Home’ > ‘Maintenance’ > ‘Communication Test’.

Where possible the transceiver will automatically select a target vessel in the range 15nm to 25nm. If no vessels are available in the recommended test range the closest vessel will be selected.