The German Weatherdock AG has developed a very smart and cost-effective solution for marking dangerous foating objects, e.g. droped containers or large oil spils: The easyAIRDROP-multiuse
Marking and Tracking
The easyAIRDROP-multiuse has got a floatable housing with the integrated VHF based locator beacon vmsTRACK-PRO-CS. Being at once activeted automaticaly by water contact, the AIRDROP-multiuse will transmit it's current GPS position in a pre-set time interval.
The transmitting interval can be selected by software. The shorter the interval, the shorter the battery lifetime will be. With the pre-set interval of every 3 minutes the battery will last for 120 hours and beyond before the baterry has to be re-charged for 4 hours. By software an additional special notation can be set into the unit, e.g. "floating object" or "oil spill EAST".
The integrated locator beacon vmsTRACK-PRO-CS contains a Class B transmitter working with CSTDMA (Carrier Sense Time Division Multipple Access) data transfer technology. The vmsTRACK-PRO-CS will transmit the "dangerous" position report into the regular AIS traffic that every AIS using vessel will get this information. Because of CSTDMA, the unit will always listen for a free transmission slot befor broadcating. This guaranties that regular AIS telegrams are not overwritten.
Extra "Push-to-Alert" button for AIS MOB message
The vmsTRACK-PRO-CS has got an additional "Push-to-Alert" button which triggers the broadcast of an "AIS MOB ACTIVE" emergency message. This will help in case of marking a "Man over Board" situation. Just pressing the Alert-Button before throwing out the easyAIRDORP-multiuse and an AIS MOB alert is set.
Air deployable for helicopter and fixed wing patrol flights
The easyAIRDROP-multiuse can be droped out from a height of up to 1000ft above sea-level. For patrol flights along the coastline this is very helpfull. With one drop-down a dangerous object can be marked in the water. Follow-up vessels will be able to clear the situation or can do further adjustments with more easyAIRDROP units.
Due to the fact that the easyAIRDROP-multiuse is floating in the current as the marked object does, informational data about curse and speed over ground of the object is transmitted as well.