Icom MA-510TR Class B AIS Solution for your Commercial Maritime Tenders

Are you a commercial maritime operator who has wanted to equip your fleet of tenders with an effective Class B AIS transponder…but the stumbling block has always been the assigning of unique MMSI numbers. Well, this is now possible with a firmware upgrade to our MA-510TR Class B AIS transponder allowing you to equip transponders to your fleet of tenders with unique MMSI numbers. You will know where they are, they’ll know where you are, thus improving everyone's safety. Considering the cost of Class A transponders, this is a low-cost way of adding transponders to your support vessels…keeping your team safe as well as your costs down.

The solution gives you the ability to be able to track tenders and safety boats that are assigned to a mother ship. For instance a cruise ship might have some tenders to take guests ashore. You want to know where they are, the MA-510TR enables you to use the unique MMSI that is assigned to the tender or life boat.

How does this Firmware Upgrade Work in Practice?
Maritime operators have requested to have a transponder on their tenders. These tenders have a unique number, it is effectively an MMSI number associated with the mother ship.

The MA-510TR will now accept prefix 98 MMSI numbers to identify them as a tender or lifeboat.

So, this is what the MMSI numbers might look like
If you have 3 x small boats/tenders on board your vessel:

Main vessel: MMSI no: 235******
Workboat #1 MMSI no: 98257****
Workboat #2 MMSI no: 98257****
Workboat #3 MMSI no: 98257****

The tender is associated with the mother ship so they are in all intense and purposes part of the vessel.

Who would find this Upgrade Beneficial?
Cruise ships, Superyachts, Research vessels…any larger commercial vessel that has a tender that needs to identify where that tender is. In the past, you could only do this with Class A but now you can do this with the Class B MA-510TR Transponder. Icom is the first manufacturer to have this facility available on a Class B Transponder.

How can I get this Firmware Upgrade?
Anyone who already has an MA-510TR in their fleet and requires this feature can contact us at Icom UK and for a charge of £30 ex VAT plus return carriage we arrange the upgrade and send it back to them.

Where do I get my Associate MMSI Numbers?
Please contact Ofcom, as they will supply a sequence of Tender MMSI numbers. This will be a unique sequence of numbers connected to the ship.

If you have any questions about this upgrade, please feel free to contact our Marine team at 01227 741741 or email the address below.

Icom UK Sales - sales@icomuk.co.uk