Icom proposes an evolution of its AIS transponder. After the MA-500TR, here is the new MA-510TR. This one is distinguished by its color screen. Indeed, the previous generation device had a two-colour screen. It is now a larger 4.3" screen, very bright and with a nice viewing angle. The advantage of the screen integrated into the transponder is to have an autonomous device (no need to read the information on a plotter or a computer). The watch and alarms are triggered with just the transponder turned on. It is a plus for the sailboats which do not have obligatorily a large battery capacity able to support electronics in standby.
Thanks to the colours, this transponder differentiates the targets. Potentially dangerous boats are displayed in red (collision course), while boats selected as "friendly" are displayed in yellow.
For users navigating in high traffic areas, the MA-510TR allows target selection. It can display only dangerous targets, hiding the others. Or it can choose to display only friendly targets (for example, during a fishing contest). The device is able to track up to 800 targets in real time.
Icom also had the intelligence to install an anchor alarm in its product. Simply by recording a turning radius from a stored GPS position, the device triggers an alarm if it leaves this circle, if the anchor slips for example.
The MA-510TR AIS transponder meets the IPX 7 waterproof standard and has a dual NMEA output. It can thus be connected to a 183 or 2000 network. With all its new functions and its color screen, it is a device which comes to secure, but especially to simplify the navigation.
It is already available (as a package with its dedicated GNSS antenna) from Icom resellers at 1099 euros TTC.
