West Marine AIS has failed.....advice on a new AIS system

[northshoreone]

My AIS has gone down...checked the VHF antenna and it seems to be working ok. It could be the GPS antenna but I'm not sure how to check that. Per the Tech. at West Marine it needs a passive GPS antenna replacement but as old as the unit is I'm thinking that I should just replace the whole thing. Looking for your thoughts or suggestions on repair or new unit make/model.
Thanks as always!

 

[Boatsb]

Receive or send/receive.

 

[northshoreone]

it is a send / receive unit

 

[Boatsb]

Garmin has their ais 600.

 

[northshoreone]

I have Garmin GPS units on the boat so I have considered that one. I see some early issues with it but nothing recently. I may call their tech. support and ask a few questions about it this week.

 

[PeterK]

I have Garmin GPS units on the boat so I have considered that one. I see some early issues with it but nothing recently. I may call their tech. support and ask a few questions about it this week.

I've been using the AIS600 for 3+ years w/o any issues.

 

[Boatsb]

I'm installing another vhf300Ais next week. It's a one piece radio and ais receiver.

 

[Timeout]

I have a Vesper XB-8000 transponder unit and have never had a problem. Works great, easy to update software, and easy to interface.

https://www.vespermarine.com/xb8000-ais-transponder.html/