Patent ID: 6522301
Filing Date: 2003-02-18
Classification: B63B,G01S,H01Q

Abstract:
An above deck unit for an aotomatic identificaton system contained in shipborne facilities installed on a ship, the shipborne facilities being part of the automatic identification system, comprising:a container, a messaging antenna mounted on the surface of said container and used for transmitting and receiving a message, said message being communicated automatically on a wireless manner between ships or between a ship and a coast station, said message containing static information, such as a name of a ship, and dynamic information, such as a current position of the ship, a radio circuit stored in said container and using said messaging antenna for transmitting and receiving said message, said container and said radio circuit being externally installed on the ship so as to allow said transmitting and receiving of said message to and from another ship or a coast station, and a controller installed for controlling said transmitting and receiving operations of said radio circuit, said controller supplying information to be contained in said message to the other ship or the coast station to said radio circuit, thereby transmitting said message from said radio circuit, said controller outputting information contained in said message received by said radio circuit from the other ship or the coast station through an inboard transmission path, thereby supplying information to be provided to a crew to an interface means for the crew connected via said inboard transmission path.