Title text:
‘Oh no, the box is drifting out into the harbor!’ ‘Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about losing it.’
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3169/
Title text:
‘Oh no, the box is drifting out into the harbor!’ ‘Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about losing it.’
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3169/
It’s been a while, but off the top of my head: MMSI (which is basically the radio installation identifier. Same number is used for AIS), and an ID digit (0 in wheelhouse, 1 on starboard bridge wing, 2 on port, etc)
nice, so plug it into a laptop, get it programmed, then drill it onto the ship?
Yes, except no plugging involved: It’s some sort of inductive way of programming it via a USB dongle. The info is written into this “programming program” which can read and write data to the unit, it’s written, and then you read it to make sure all the info was applied.
Then you label the unit physically with ship name, callsign, and MMSI. In addition to this there are two stickers that come with the unit, denoting the expiry date of the battery and the hydrostatic release. These go on the unit so that’s it easy to check if it’s time to replace them.