As a follow up to the article published in MFB54 entitled ‘AIS and ECDIS offsets’, CHIRP is concerned about the effect of randomly altering the smoothing curve settings of a GPS since there may well be unexpected consequences .
We are currently engaging with GPS manufacturers in order to obtain some clarity as to the cause and effect of making changes to the smoothing curve settings. Once this process has been completed, we intend to publish an Insight Article with our findings, learnings, and advice.
In the meantime, we repeat our current advice to shipboard navigators that there is likely to be significant position discrepancy between radar derived positions and GPS derived positions if the smoothing settings are not adjusted according to the GPS manual available on board. In addition, good practice dictates that for coastal and inland water navigation GPS derived positions must be frequently cross-checked against radar derived positions and visually derived positions.
Report Ends