[jonoflewis]

I am preparing to do an offshore coastal race along the Pacific Coast, from SF to Santa Barbara. I see an AIS transciever from Icom, an MXA 5000, that connects between the VHF antenna and the VHF radio, receives both varieties of AIS signals, acts as an antenna splitter, and outputs received AIS information to a computer (MacBook Pro laptop). This sounds like a good solution to the AIS problem for a 35' sailboat. Anybody have any experience with these components or have a better solution?
Thanks for your input...