The Automatic Transmitter Identification System (ATIS) is a
marine VHF radio system used and mandated on navigable inland
waterways in Europe for identifying the ship or vessel that made a radio transmission. The identity of the vessel is sent digitally immediately after the ship's radio operator has finished talking and releases their transceiver's
push-to-talk button. This contrasts to the
Automatic identification system(AIS) used globally on ships that transmit continuously. A short post-transmission message is sent by the radio with the vessel identity and is in the form of an encoded
call sign or
Maritime Mobile Service Identity, starting with number "9" and the three country-specific
maritime identification digits.
ATIS use on the
Trans-European Inland Waterway network The Trans-European Inland Waterway network is one of a number of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) of the European Union.
According to Article 11 of the Decision No 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 1 ...
and connecting waterways is mandated by the Regional Arrangement Concerning the Radiotelephone Service on Inland Waterways (RAINWAT) agreements, which also prohibit the use of
Digital Selective Calling (DSC) where ATIS is required, except in some near-coastal areas, or in sea-like areas of The Netherlands.
The database of ATIS vessel identities is maintained by the
Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...
(fr) (nl).
The ATIS signalling protocol is based on that used for
Digital Selective Calling (DSC); with the ATIS transmissions having the format specifier field set to a value of 121.
While DSC transmissions take place exclusively on Channel 70, the ATIS digital signal is transmitted on the same VHF channel as the voice transmission: it lasts for 285 milliseconds after the PTT button has been released, using
frequency modulation frequency-shift keying
Frequency-shift keying (FSK) is a frequency modulation scheme in which digital information is transmitted through discrete frequency changes of a carrier signal. The technology is used for communication systems such as telemetry, weather ball ...
(FSK) between the frequencies of 1,300 Hz and 2,100 Hz at 1,200 baud.
The core part of the message is transmitted using 10-bit codes; each code being formed of a 7-bit symbol followed by a 3-bit count of the number of zeros in that symbol.
References
Water transport in Europe
Maritime communication
{{europe-transport-stub