It is possible to connect your radio to the computer if the device has an audio output. This means that almost any wideband receiver or marine VHF handheld radio is suitable for receiving AIS data. This is a really exciting approach to data collection, and various software solutions can process this data. However, this method can only monitor and decode one AIS channel at a time. Additionally, there are now affordable receivers that make reception even easier. How this works is described in this article.
Tune your receiver to one of the following frequencies (FM modulation):
AIS1 161,975 MHz (VHF 87B) Channel A
AIS2 162,025 MHz (VHF 88B) Channel B
If you receive a signal, you should be able to hear a "noise" repeated at very short intervals. This "noise" would be a raw AIS-transmitted message.
Connect the discriminator output of your receiver to the input (line-in or microphone) of your computer.
Install software on your computer that is able to decode Audio.
AISmon - is software specifically designed for this task and is easy to use.
ShipPlotter - also has this function but has significantly more functions.
AIS Dispatcher - also has this function but has more functions.
Run the software and configure the Audio decoding
Select your PC's sound card and configure the UDP data output to MarineTraffic
Next, access your station on MarineTraffic to verify if the data is being received. Please allow a few minutes for the statistics to reflect a successful reception.