How you can improve or play around with the internal RTL SDR Dongle setting in my RTL SDR AIS Driver app or in AIS SHARE app.
Note: If you have AIS SHARE app, you do not need to change any settings in RTL SDR AIS Driver app.
Category: Allgemein
Practical Boat Owner Test AIS Share

David Berry from Practical Boat Owner shows how to make an AIS receiver with an Android Phone or Tablet and a RTL-SDR.com dongle. He use AIS Share to stream data to Boat Beacon a very popular chart navigation app. See the full article on https://www.pbo.co.uk/publication/pbo/february-2019
See also https://pocketmariner.com/dual-channel-ais-receiver-for-under-35-boat-beacon-ais-share-and-rtl-sdr/
AIS Receiver Shopping Guide
USB OTG cable
Depending on your device you need an USB Micro or USB C cable.
A USB Y has normally less quality but it allow you to keep your device charging at the same time as using the RTL SDR-dongle.
Amazon Deutschland
International Shipping (Aliexpress)
(Budget store – shipping take up to 3 weeks)
Note to all links: As an Amazon Associate and Aliexpress Affilate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Note for Y cables:
It is important that you connect the power and the RTL-SDR dongle to the Y cable first before connecting it to your device otherwise it won’t charge the device – there is a video about this here:-https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rXiyzfP94AU
Note: This is not working on all devices
DVB-T Stick / RTL-SDR Stick
Search for RTL2832U / 820T / 820T2 USB stick.
I recommend high quality dongles which are more expensive but PPM is fix and stable around 0 or 1 . (0,5 PPM TCXO)
Please note: The antenna delivered with some dongles is more or less only for testing. Don’t expect a good reception
Amazon Deutschland
(all high quality with 0.5 ppm)
International Shipping (Aliexpress)
(Budget store – shipping takes up to 3 weeks)
High quality Aliexpress
Cheap price , but PPM is individual -Aliexpress
Note to all links: As an Amazon Associate and Aliexpress Affilate, I earn from qualifying purchases. .
ANDROID SOFTWARE
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
ANTENNA
You can build your own antenna see http://www.radioforeveryone.com/p/ais-antennas.html or
https://arundaleais.github.io/docs/ais/aerial.html
or you buy a profesional one (expensive in my mind)
RTL SDR AIS RECEIVER
RTL SDR AIS App and AIS Share App


WHAT IS IT ?
It is an Android app that decodes AIS messages transmitted by vessels , ships, over radio using a cheap USB DVB-T /RTL-SDR stick.
AIS messages are transmitted over VHF.
Channel A: 161.975 MHz
Channel B: 162.025 MHz.
The app decodes both channels simultaneously.
This app needs no internet connection, it decodes the real time received messages.
This is a truly standalone full featured AIS receiver.
The received messages will be translated into NMEA0183 strings which can be forwarded then via UDP or TCP streaming to third-party apps, PC programs or other devices.
Such Apps can display the received AIS data for example on a map along with information about the received objects.
Please note: The app needs additional (very cheap) hardware to receive the radio signals.
FEATURES
- Cheap AIS dual channel AIS receiver
- Low power consummation
- Easy to install
- Receive VHF AIS radio signals via DVB-T / RTL SDR USB Stick
- Decode AIS messages into NMEA0183 strings ( !AIVDM )
- Send this messages via Network (UDP/TCP)
- Device location (GPS,Network) translation into NMEA strings
- location NEMA forwarding via Network (UDP)(GPGSV,GPGSA,GPZDA,GPRMC,..)
HARDWARE
Typical cost about ~ 15 -35 €
You need