DISCUSSION

Chart Navigator Pro 2.0 (feat Offshore Navigator v6.0) will only listen to incoming data on ONE SINGLE COM PORT, therefore your GPS and AIS would need to be streamed in together.

This can be done a few different ways:
1) Perhaps the AIS you decide to get already has a GPS built in and therefore outputs the correct GPS data as well as the correct AIS data. (outputting both !AIVDM ( the AIS data that is providing other vessel's position and info ) and !AIVDO ( is the AIS data that is providing other vessel's your position report ) and $GPRMC ( is the GPS data that plots your position in our software )
examples: Westmarine's AIS-1000
or ComNav's Marinier X2 AIS

2) Some AIS devices are considered to be a pass-trough device. This means you can plug some GPS' into
the back of the AIS. The GPS data then travels into the AIS, the AIS then passes along that data as well as outputs it's own AIS data.
example: Cactusmarine's Digital-Yacht AIS 200

3) A multiplexer is a piece of hardware that would allow you to connect multiple inputs, and that device combines all that data and streams it into the computer via a single port.
example: Shipmodul.com

4) There is some software out there, such as Franson's GPS Gate Client that digitally listens to multiple ports, and combines it all together and directs it to a single COM Port. (the same way a the multiplexer would work, except there's no extra hardware, it's all done internally in the computer via that GPS Gate Client program.)
example: Franson GPS Gate Client

Once the GPS & AIS are coming in on a single COM Port, you would set up the Maptech software to use the incoming data by doing the following:
1. Click the Vessel/GPS menu, choose Setup, then GPS...

2. Set the Manufacturer to "NMEA-Generic",

3. Set the COM Port to the single COM Port that all your data is now being directed to (See above examples 1-4)

4. Click The Port Settings tab, and set the Baud Rate to the higher of the two Baud Rates of the GPS and AIS data.
(If GPS data is streaming in at 4800, and the AIS is streaming it's data at 38400, then set the Baud Rate to 38400.
If the GPS is streaming in at 4800, and the AIS is streaming it's data at 4800, then set the Baud Rate to 4800.)

5. Click "GPS On".
6. Click "OK"

7. Now Click the Vessel/GPS menu, choose "Position From GPS".

If you have GPS and AIS data coming in, the software will then place your vessel icon in it's position, and (as long as you have the AIS targets option checked in the View menu, Options, Overlays tab) the software will start plotting out the AIS targets as well.

If you DO NOT have GPS data coming in, you will get an error message indicating the GPS could not be initialized. Click OK on the message, and if you have AIS data coming in, then the software will plot out the AIS targets, but it will not plot YOUR vessel's position.

Also, if you have "Follow Vessel" checked (in the lower left corner of the screen) this will keep your vessel's position on the screen. To view a chart area that DOES NOT contain your vessel's position, you must uncheck "Follow Vessel".