Is anyone else shopping for AIS? Separate receivers for VHF, GPS, AIS, etc. is expen$ive! The Standard Horizon GX2100 VHF receiver includes AIS [ they both use VHF band], but I don't want to upgrade my current VHF radio, which isn't much use anyway on an open ocean. Since Southernaire needs both AIS and another GPS, the COMAR AIS-MULTI receiver/splitter for $399 looks like a good option. It has the active splitter built-in which allows use of existing VHF antenna; it interfaces w/Raymarine or other NMEA0183 plotters, and has USB capability for simultaneous monitoring on a PC running either Windows or MAC nav software.
There's also the AMEC cypho-101G with similar multiple interface capabilities for $439, viewing software included; but this one needs either an active splitter [ another $139 ] or a separate antenna, consumes 3 watts compared to only 1.3 watts for the COMAR unit.

Recommendations, anyone?