⚡ SIGNAL K — CONNECTING LIVE INSTRUMENTS

📖 Full Signal K setup guide & hardware options →

Signal K is the open marine data standard that connects your onboard NMEA 0183 and NMEA 2000 instruments to this system in real time. To connect:

1. Install Signal K Server on a Raspberry Pi or laptop aboard your vessel — signalk.org
2. Connect your chart plotter, VHF, wind instruments, depth sounder, and engine sensors via NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2000 to Signal K
3. Note your Signal K server's IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.100) and port (default: 3000)
4. Go to Admin → Config → Services → Marine Nav Tracker and enter your Signal K host and port
5. Return to the tracker — the ⚡ SK button top-left will pulse green when connected

When connected, the following data flows live into the tracker and into every filed report:

• Navigation — Heading (mag + true), SOG, BSP, COG, Rate of Turn, Log, Trip Log, Nav State, GPS quality
• Attitude — Heel, Pitch, Rudder angle
• Wind — True wind speed/direction/angle, Apparent wind speed/angle
• Environment — Depth (below keel, transducer, surface), Water temp, Air temp, Barometric pressure, Humidity, Dew point, Wind chill, Salinity, Current drift/set, Tide height, Heave
• Engines — RPM, engine temp, oil pressure, oil temp, coolant temp, alternator voltage, engine hours, gear, load, fuel burn rate (up to 6 engines)
• Tanks — Fuel level %, volume, capacity for all connected tanks (diesel, gasoline, fresh water, black water)
• Electrical — Battery state of charge %, voltage, current, health, hours remaining, temperature for all banks
• Autopilot — State (auto/wind/route/standby), target heading, target wind angle
• Interior zones — Engine room temp, cabin temp, refrigerator (if sensors connected)

Without Signal K, instruments show -- and you can still use the tracker manually.

🗺 CHARTS & MAP LAYERS

The tracker loads OSM (OpenStreetMap) by default for fast startup. Tap the blinking 🗺 CHARTS button in the toolbar to switch to full NOAA nautical charts. Available layers:

• OSM — OpenStreetMap, fast load, good for harbors and coastal reference
• NOAA ENC — Full NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts with depth contours, buoys, hazards
• NOAA Paper — Traditional paper chart style
• NOAA ECDIS — Dark ECDIS-style chart for night use
• Satellite — Aerial imagery
• Ocean — Ocean/bathymetric basemap

⚓ OBSERVER POSITION (OBS)

Sets your vessel's position on the chart. This is the reference point for all bearing, range, and angle calculations.

• Click the ⚓ OBS toolbar button to open the observer panel
• Enter coordinates manually, use GPS to pull your browser's location, or click the map to place the observer marker
• Select your Vessel Type — this changes the ship icon on the chart and is recorded in reports
• When Signal K is connected, position updates automatically from your GPS

🛸 OBJECT PIN — RANGING & UAP WORKFLOW

The Object Pin is how you mark anything you want to measure: a UAP, another vessel, a lighthouse, a rock, a buoy, a building, an aircraft, a helicopter. Once pinned:

• Click the 🛸 OBJECT toolbar button, select your Object Type, then click the map to place the pin
• The 📐 ANGLE drawer opens automatically showing real-time bearing, range, clock position
• Drag the elevation arc or use ▲▼ to set the elevation angle — altitude calculates automatically
• Click 🛸 UAP REPORT to file a full UAP sighting report using this data
• Click 📍 POSITION REPORT to file a position/navigation report using the pin geometry

Object types available: Saucer, Triangle, Orb, Tic-Tac, Boomerang, Rectangle, Mothership, Galactic Cruiser — plus real-world objects: Ship, Boat, Plane, Helicopter, Lighthouse, Rock/Shoal, Building.

📐 ANGLE FINDER

Opens automatically when an object is pinned. Shows:

• RNG — Range in nautical miles and meters from observer to object
• AZIMUTH — True bearing in degrees and clock position
• ELEV — Elevation angle in degrees above the horizon (drag the arc or use ▲▼)
• ALTITUDE — Calculated altitude in feet based on range × tan(elevation)
• HDG — Your vessel heading at time of observation

🛰 SKY PLOT

Shows a real-time sky position plot centered on your object bearing. Aircraft, satellites, weather balloons, planets, and bright stars are all plotted at their actual azimuth and elevation. Objects commonly mistaken for UAPs are flagged with a ⚠ misidentification risk marker.

• Open via the 🛰 SKY toolbar button (right panel)
• Also embedded in the Marine Composite Image when you generate a report
• Data sources: OpenSky (aircraft), CelesTrak (satellites), SondeHub (weather balloons), Hipparcos star catalog, VSOP87 planetary positions

📡 INSTRUMENTS (INST)

Opens the right-side instrument panel. When Signal K is connected, all values update live. Without SK, values show -- or use NWS/NOAA data where available. Sections:

• Compass — Live heading with rotating compass card
• Speed — SOG, BSP, VMG
• Wind — TWS, TWD, TWA, AWS, AWA with wind rose
• Depth — Depth gauge with configurable units (feet/metres/fathoms)
• AIS — Vessel traffic in your scan radius

🌊 WEATHER (WX)

Opens the right-side weather panel. Tabs:

• Marine Forecast — NWS coastal/offshore marine text forecast for your position
• Buoys — Nearest NDBC buoy observations (wind, wave height, period, sea temp, pressure)
• Alerts — Active NWS marine weather alerts for your area
• Tides — NOAA tide predictions for nearest station
• Waves — Open-Meteo wave/swell forecast (height, period, direction)
• Land WX — NWS land forecast and current conditions for your position

📍 POSITION REPORT

Files a personal marine position report saved to your My Marine profile tab. Captures a complete snapshot of your environment at the moment of filing:

• Full vessel instrument package (all Signal K data)
• Marine weather — forecast, buoys, alerts, tides, waves, current conditions
• Sky position plot — aircraft, satellites, balloons, planets, stars at your location
• Space weather — Kp index, solar wind, X-ray flux, UECI score
• Satellite proximity report, air traffic snapshot, weather balloon proximity

If an object is pinned, the report also captures full bearing/range/elevation/altitude geometry. Requires a premium membership account.

🛸 UAP REPORT

Files a Marine UAP Sighting Report — the same rich environmental data as a position report, plus the complete sighting geometry (object type, description, duration, clock position, elevation angle, calculated altitude) and a composite sighting image. Reports are public and contribute to the AlienAlerts.com citizen intelligence database. Requires a free observer account.

🗓 AIS — VESSEL TRAFFIC

Opens the vessel traffic panel showing all AIS targets within your scan radius. Requires an AIS API key configured in admin settings (MarineTraffic, AISHub, or VesselFinder). Vessel icons on the chart show heading and vessel type. Click any vessel for MMSI, name, speed, and heading.

📍 ROUTE PLANNER

Click waypoints on the chart to build a route. The route panel shows total distance, bearing between legs, and estimated time at your current SOG. Export as GPX for use in your chart plotter. Toggle between rhumb line and great circle routing for long passages.

⚓ ANCHOR ALARM

Set an anchor watch radius. The system monitors your position and triggers an alert if the vessel moves outside the set radius — useful when connected via Signal K for live GPS position updates.

▶ SIMULATION

Launches the full voyage simulation: SV ALIEN ALERTS departs Harbor Island Marina, San Diego, and sails approximately 100nm offshore to the USS Nimitz Tic-Tac UAP encounter coordinates (2004). The simulation runs at adjustable speed with live instrument updates. Use it to explore the tracker features and test report filing from any position along the route.

🖼 COMPOSITE IMAGE

When filing a UAP report, tap 🖼 GENERATE COMPOSITE IMAGE to build a full composite sighting image containing: radar/AIS scope, object icon card, angle finder geometry, GOES satellite imagery, large sky position plot, and clearance lists for all aircraft, satellites, balloons, and celestial objects near your sighting. The image is saved to the report automatically.

⚙ ADMIN SETTINGS

Accessible at Admin → Config → Services → Marine Nav Tracker. Configure:

• Signal K host and port
• AIS provider and API key
• Default map position and layer
• Depth and speed units
• Scan radius
• UAP integration toggle

AlienAlerts.com Marine Nav Tracker · alienalerts.com · Science-grade citizen UAP reporting platform

📖 FULL DOCUMENTATION & SIGNAL K SETUP GUIDE →