RTL-SDR AIS Ship Tracking
Introduction
- AIS: Automatic Identification System.
- RTL
- SDR: Software Defined Radio
- Also: ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) for aircraft surveillance. 1090 MHz
Need a radio dongle, antenna. Use Arduino and RPi.
RTL-SDR V3
My dongle seems to be original, according to https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-blog-v-3-dongles-user-guide/
V3 Datasheet is at https://www.rtl-sdr.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/RTL-SDR-Blog-V3-Datasheet.pdf
- Install the custom drivers in order to make the V4 work
- RTL-SDR Blog driver fork from https://github.com/rtlsdrblog/rtl-sdr-blog
Software
SDRSharp
Theory
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-cheap-ais-ship-tracking/
Radio Dongle
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/
https://www.ebay.com/str/rtlsdrblog
Antenna
The frequency of AIS signal is 161.975 MHz and 162.025 MHz, and have the max range of about 70 km.
Quarter wave / dipole. One vertical 1/4 wave element connected to the center of the coax cable and 4 (or more) more grounding elements pointing towards the the ground at 45 deg.
Coax collinear antenna. Very high omnidirectional gain. Multiple short coax cables where the outer conductor is connected to the inner conductor in an alternating fashion.
Yagi antenna. Very directional antenna that will pick up signals in the direction it is pointed: Very large gain.
Slim Jim.
Refs:
