THE BATTLE FOR AIS AT THE IMO

摘要

The introduction of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) has been one of lALA's most important achievements, says former IALA Secretary-General Torsten Kruuse. IALA was always present and active in the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) of the IMO as well as in other IMO committees. For many years Mr Peter Kent was the accredited IALA representative (he also was the secretary to FERNS, the Far East Radio Navigation Service, amongst other things). He was greatly respected in the IMO and Peter and I always agreed on the strategy to follow in IMO meetings. Only once did Peter and I have a different view. It concerned the transponder for ships. IALA had been working on an automatic identification system based on Digital Selective Calling (DSC transponder) for use in VTS areas in order to ensure that the VTS operator knows which ship he/she is talking to.