ICOM MX-5000 AIS Receiver Pricing

[jimh]

I suspect the ICOM AIS receiver model MXA-500 is nearing end-of-life as a product for ICOM, although it continues to be listed on their website. It is being offered at an attractive price by sellers via AMAZON. For example, see

http://www.amazon.com/Icom-MXA5000-Marine-Class-Receiver/dp/B001QWZQS2/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1451313032&sr=8-8&keywords=Marine+VHF+AIS+radios

The price is down to $253. While a price of $253 is not remarkable for an older AIS receiver, the value of the MXA-5000 is enhanced by two additional features of the unit. The MXA-5000 has:

--an antenna splitter which allows the AIS receiver to share the same antenna as your VHF Marine Band transmitter; this would be useful for fitting to a small boat with an existing radio that lacked AIS; you would not need to add an antenna for the AIS receiver; the splitter inserts a 3-dB loss on receive; power loss on transmit is not specified but is assumed to be minimal;

--a NMEA-0183 data multiplexer; the MXA-5000 can take in NMEA-0183 data at 4800-Bps, up-convert it to 38400-Bps, and multiplex it with the data from the AIS receiver; this is useful for connecting to a chart plotter that has only one NMEA-0183 input.

The ICOM MXA-5000 AIS receiver dates from c.2008, so it is about five or six years old, which is a bit ancient in marine electronics. The AIS receiver does have two dedicated receivers, one for each channel, which is significant when compared to many older AIS receivers. The antenna splitter and NMEA-0183 multiplexers may be very useful in some installations.

According to the data on my AIS Receiver Round-Up, the MXA-500 was selling for about $450 in c.2008.

[andrey320]

Thank you for this article Jim.

AIS was remotely interesting to me but after last Friday's near miss with a cargo ship in the fog, I'm getting it installed. Without going into much detail, if the ship captain was not on top of things, I may not be here to talk about this.

My research has brought me to this unit as a cheaper alternative to the Garmin AIS300. I'll be using it to interface with my Garmin 545. Because my VHF range is a vital piece of safety to me, I'm concerned that using my current eight foot Shakespeare antenna to share with the Icom AIS receiver will reduce my range.

What is your opinion on how AIS receivers effect rx/tx VHF range?

Maybe I should just get a small, separate antenna?

Thank you for you input!

[jimh]

If the antenna splitter device is well made--and I assume it is since it is made by ICOM--there will be minimal loss on transmit of your VHF Marine Band radio through the device. That means no worry about lost transmit range.

On receive, usually there will be a loss of 3dB to each receiver. This is not an awful problem, as usually a receiver has plenty of reserve gain to overcome the -3dB in the splitter. At the very ultimate sensitivity of both the AIS receiver and the VHF Marine Band radio receiver, you will be losing some receiver sensitivity.

Going to a separate antenna is better, but then there is the problem of two antennas. And if the dedicated AIS antenna is not mounted as high as your main VHF Marine Band antenna, it won't have as much range. Also, if using two antennas, they should be located far apart so as not to affect one another. On a small boat adequate separation between two antennas may be hard to achieve.

To start, I would use the facility of the MX-5000 and its antenna splitter to share one main antenna between the VHF radio and AIS receiver.

[jimh]

There is another solution to adding AIS reception to your small boat radio system: get a new VHF Marine Band radio that has its own internal AIS receiver. This will overcome all the problems of sharing an antenna, will be more compact, and will give you a new and modern radio. The cost of adding an AIS receiver to a communication radio is about $100 above the price of a similar radio without that option. Since this add-on AIS receiver is in the $260 price range, buying a new radio in that same price range with an AIS receiver should be considered. There is one radio that won't cost any more than the AIS receiver and splitter:

--Lowrance LINK-8 with AIS, about $250 at best retail.

In another thread, I give a list of VHF radios on the market with AIS features.

[andrey320]

Great input Jim. Although my radio is still fairly new and has DSC, upgrading the radio to include AIS may make more sense than getting the AIS receiver. I will consider the two options and go with the best one for me.
Thank you.

[andrey320]

Just bought a Lowrence Link 8 for $230 total from TheGPSStore.com.
That's cheaper than I'd be paying for the AIS receiver....
I'll post this in the VHF thread as well.

Thank you again Jim for sharing your knowledge!