Seaar
The receiver network

Run a receiver. Power free ship tracking.

A website is copyable; a physical, crowdsourced coverage network is not. With ~$40 of hardware and an antenna near the water, you add live coverage where Seadar can't see — and help keep ship tracking free for everyone.

Register a stationSee the setup
Fill the gaps
Satellite and terrestrial feeds miss rivers, inlets and quiet coastlines. Your antenna covers exactly what the big networks don't.
Reach further, together
Stations can also feed AISHub, whose reciprocal network gives Seadar coverage from thousands of other receivers worldwide.
It's the moat
The network is the long-term asset — owned by the community, not licensed from anyone. Contributors get station stats and recognition.

What you need

Roughly $40–80, one time. No subscription, no lock-in.

~$40
RTL-SDR receiver
An RTL-SDR Blog V4 USB dongle. It tunes the 162 MHz marine AIS band.
~$20
VHF antenna
A simple 162 MHz marine antenna, mounted as high and as close to open water as you can.
have one?
Always-on computer
A Raspberry Pi, mini-PC, or any spare machine that can stay on and online.

Three steps to go live

  1. 1

    Plug in the hardware

    Connect the antenna to the RTL-SDR and the dongle to your always-on computer.

  2. 2

    Run an AIS decoder

    Install AIS-catcher (or rtl-ais). It decodes the radio into NMEA messages. We provide a one-line config in the setup guide.

  3. 3

    Point your feed at Seadar

    Forward decoded NMEA over TCP/UDP to receiver.seadar.io:10110 with your station key (you get one when you register below). That's it — your ship reports start flowing in.

Ready?

Register a station to get your unique key and connection details. You can run it headless and check status from your account.

Register a station →