Garmin® Announces the AIS 600 for Vessel Tracking and Collision Avoidance

Garmin the global leader in satellite navigation, is delighted to announce the AIS 600 – the company’s first AIS transceiver to allow mariners to receive and transmit Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, for identification and avoidance of other vessels at short or long range, in virtually any visibility.

Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales said:  “Motor boat owners and yachtsman alike will benefit from the safety and security the AIS 600 provides.

“With the AIS 600, mariners can rest assured knowing that they have visibility of the boat traffic around them and that they can be seen by other vessels whilst navigating through busy shipping lanes.” 

The AIS 600 receives both Class A and Class B signals simultaneously, ensuring that no critical information is lost. In addition, the AIS 600 features a unique built-in Active splitter with ClearTrack™ technology that eliminates the need for two VHF antennas – giving you more space and making installation easy without the need for additional hardware. 

The active splitter makes sure that all VHF and AIS communications are sent and received with minimal signal loss or interruption, whilst ClearTrack ensures no disruption of AIS traffic reception, even when the VHF radio is in use.  Garmin is the first manufacturer to bring the unique ClearTrack technology to the AIS market.

Users can make the AIS target’s position appear on their electronic chartplotter and the new black box AIS 600 transceiver is both NMEA 0183 & NMEA 2000 compliant, to allow easily integration into your on-board marine network. Once installed, the AIS 600 provides detailed information including ship identification data, position, course and speed of vessels equipped with an AIS transmitter within range whilst simultaneously transmitting your own vessel’s details to others. There is a Silent Running mode for use when you do not wish to transmit your own position.

When the AIS 600 is integrated with a Garmin chartplotter and VHF radio via NMEA 2000, a DSC call can be initiated directly to any AIS target straight from the chart plotter, by selecting the “call with radio” function.  Mariners may also activate the AIS target which will draw a heading line from the target in the direction of travel, as well as graphic representation of rate and direction of turn. 

The AIS 600 has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of £999.99 and will be available in January 2010. For more information on this and other products in the Garmin marine family, visit www.garmin.co.uk.

About Garmin
The global leader in satellite navigation, Garmin Ltd. and its subsidiaries have designed, manufactured, marketed and sold navigation, communication and information devices and applications since 1989 – most of which are enabled by GPS technology.  Garmin’s products serve automotive, mobile, wireless, outdoor recreation, marine, aviation, and OEM applications. Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. For more information visit Garmin's media centre at www.garmin.co.uk/mediacentre. Garmin is a registered trademark of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries.  All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Notice on forward-looking statements:
This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Garmin Ltd. and its business. All statements regarding the company’s future product introductions are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on management's current expectations. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and actual results could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting Garmin, including, but not limited to, the risk factors listed in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 29, 2007 filed by Garmin with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission file number 000-31983). A copy of Garmin’s Form 10-K can be downloaded at www.garmin.com/aboutGarmin/invRelations/finReports.html. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Garmin undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
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