Ships: New RTL-SDR Compatible Android App for AIS Reception and Plotting

Today an Android app programmer sent a message to let us know about his new open source RTL-SDR compatible AIS app called Ships.  This is a free app that allows you to decode AIS signals, and plot them directly onto an OpenStreetMap/OpenSeaMap or output the data via UDP to another mapping program.

Ships also has another interesting feature which is that it will automatically determine the PPM offset of a dongle, meaning that generic dongles without TCXO’s can be easily used for AIS. It appears to do this by using the AIS signals themselves, so you will need sufficient AIS traffic in your area for the calibration to work.

AIS stands for Automatic Identification System, and is a system used to track the locations of marine vessels. It is similar to ADS-B in that nearby ships can be plotted and tracked on a map by using an RTL-SDR as the receiver. We have a tutorial for PC available here.

The app can be downloaded for free on Google Play, and the open source code is available on GitHub.

Ships RTL-SDR Android App Screenshot
Ships RTL-SDR Android App Screenshot
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

11 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Martin

Hi,
NooElec NESDR SMART has PPM 0.5. The app does not allow for decimal values.
Should I set it to 0 or 1?
Thanks a lot for the great app!
Martin

Patrick De Boeck

I especially bought the RTL/SDR dongle as this seems indeed a great application.
Unforrtunately under Android 7.0, the app quits after the “PPM screen”

THIEN AN hoang

THANK YOU FOR THIS GREAT APP

I rated it 5* in google play and encourage people to use it (in my French blog)

Giamma

On OnePlus One I can not enter a negative PPM in the settings, does not accept the value minus “-“. Also tested copy and paste.

Developer

Solved in version 1.01. In this version, you can also enter negative PPM values. Please update the application from Google Play.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.videgro.ships

Giamma

Thank you! Right now I’m updating the app as soon as possible and test run;). Other issue that I observe on the device OPO is not handled well the resolution of monitors from the app and I can not load the OpenStreetMaps maps. Good job! Excellent response and proactive! good luck to all.

Giamma

hi, I would like to inform you that the fixing of the “negative PPM” is also fixed, instead regarding the failure load of the map is due to the storage permits disabled, enabling the permits and the map is loaded immediately. Bye

Developer

Don’t forget to give it 5 stars in Google Play 🙂

Giamma

I’m using a simpyl stick 2832u without TCXO and testing is continuing from forty minutes without blocks , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoevJdimQZo

Eric Hahn

This is incredible. There has been a need for this for quite a while and someone, you, have finally filled the void. Kudos to you good sir/madam!

Eric Hahn

The app does not launch on Nexus 6p Android 7.0. Hope this gets resolved quickly.