AIS on OpenCPN ENC Charts – Telecommunications, Navigation & Electronics

Introduction

In a previous post I looked at receiving AIS & GNSS on OpenCPN using BSB Raster charts which I have been using since 2017 (Ref.1). Today I purchased new vector S57 ENC charts for the St Lawrence River close to Montreal (Ref.2). I tested reception down at the Port of Montreal.

Equipment Block Diagram

Figure 1 shows the equipment block diagram. This is the same setup I used in Ref.1. The only difference this time is that I did not plug in the GNSS unit as the laptop was running out of power and I needed every mA. For the antenna I used a portable 16inch whip.

Reception Results on OpenCPN

Fig.2 OpenCPN Chart Directories & Options

Fig.3 AIS Contacts Shown on OpenCPN Port of Montreal

When I first started OpenCPN, I panicked because I didn’t see anything around Montreal. Then I zoomed in and saw the 3 small chart rectangles, but they weren’t displaying anything. Then I went to Options/Charts/Vector Chart Display and ticked off all the boxes. Everything then appeared (Fig.2). Zooming in I could see many contacts in the Montreal Port area.