Solent ship positions, live marine radio, news and movements
DSC
DSC is a maritime paging system. You can see a live list of ship paging calls in the Solent area and distress calls plotted on a map. If you don’t know what DSC is, there is information with an explanatory video.
DSC home
Message list
Message format
DSC map
DSC info
Nowadays ships continually broadcast their position by means of AIS (automatic identification system) which allows vessel ship tracking on an electronic chart with a suitable VHF receiver and computer. On this site you can track the ship positions in the Solent, Isle of Wight area, Southampton, Portsmouth and the Solent anchorages. There is also information on how AIS works along with a video.
The Solent shipping webcam looks across the main shipping lane to and from Southampton. Located at Ryde, on the Isle of Wight this webcam allows you to see the passing ships. Watch some of the world's largest cruise ships go by. You can follow their progress on a quick update AIS map showing the field of view of the webcam. There are also webcams looking across Portsmouth Harbour where you can watch the Isle of Wight Ferries, continental ferries and the naval ships. There are also links to several cruise ship bridgecams.
The Solent shipping news is updated frequently with marine related news. News with pictures of all things maritime in the Isle of Wight, Solent, Southampton port and Portsmouth Harbour naval ship news. Also included is a list of maritime events in the Solent and Isle of Wight area. Southampton WSS Branch newsletter Black Jack and Solent Maritime Society Scanner. Site visitors are invited to send in pictures and pieces of news.
Visit the Solent area message board and forum. Post any shipping news items or comment on other posted messages and news items on this simple easy to use message board.
See at a glance the tide times of ports around the Solent and on the Isle of Wight. Information, animation and video on how the tides work.
Pictures of ships that have visited the Solent area in the current and previous years in an easy to navigate album format.
Information on the main ports around the Solent area including Southampton, Portsmouth, Newport and Cowes. Also included is a brief history of the ports with historical pictures.
This site has live DSC (digital selective calling) messages along with an explanation and video on how DSC works.
Listen to live marine radio. You can listen to all the ship and port marine communication with an easy to use live streaming interface. Listen to Southampton VTS and Portsmouth QHM controlling the ships on passage to and from Portsmouth and Southampton. You can also listen to all sorts of vessels including naval, lifeboats, pleasure craft etc. along with the coastguard.
Shipping movements and cruise schedules from Southampton and the container port and the Queens Harbour Master at Portsmouth are presented in an easy to navigate format.
It is recommended that you set up your most frequently used pages as favourites or as a desktop icon. How to do this varies between browsers, so just do a Google search on how do these actions with your own browser. Some times I change page numbers, so if any of the links on here are broken, please report it to me.
These popups can be accessed in various parts of the site, but here they are altogether in a list
