The unit is housed in a cobalt blue-coloured, strong and compact die-cast aluminium enclosure that is suitable for bulkhead mounting. It contains a sensitive VHF receiver combined with a specialised hardware decoder and two-way serial interface to give a high performance receiving and decoding system. It is specifically designed for indoor base station use, perhaps to enable ship operators to keep track of their fleet.

There are no hardware controls, with all adjustments being carried out by easy to use inbuilt firmware. There are multiple output modes for presentation of results on a serial data terminal (or software emulation) as well as being able to output standard AIS NMEA sentences at 19,200 or 38,400 baud.

All input and output is by the use of a character display terminal and keyboard or readily available terminal emulation software running on a computer system, with full control being provided by the use of simple, inbuilt host commands. An easily accessible internal jumper allows selection of permanent NMEA mode should it be required for use in isolation with commercially available graphical presentation and charting software such as ShipPlotter.

When used in a fixed location, own position is permanently stored in non-volatile memory that allows range and bearing of received ship targets to be calculated and displayed. The unit operates from standard mains supplies via an included wall cube transformer plug. Serial port connection is via standard 9-way D connector whilst the aerial connection is via a standard 50-ohm BNC socket.