Getting the ship name and country code in PostGreSQL for HomeAssistant

[JBX77]

Hi,

I'm successfully running AIS-Catcher on a Raspberry Pi with a dAISy HAT.
I'm pushing the data to HomeAssistant using MQTT and I'm reading data from the PostGreSQL DB.
I have 2 questions:

1. I'm not able to find the Country Code in the database.
2. Some ships do not store a Ship Name and/or Callsign in the DB however these are visible in the web viewer.

Can I pull this information from a different source? API, HTML, UDP?

Nice to have: a table with all the vessel types stored in the DB. I could add this myself but I'm not sure future versions could break the DB structure.

[jvde-github]

Hi, good questions.

Do you see the country code in the MQTT or -o 5 stream? In some cases it can be suppressed as it is optionally in JSON but automatically activated if you run with a web viewer. Manually activate via (-M M).

Can you clarify which table you are using in PSQL? Assume it is ais_vessel which does not have a country column indeed. Maybe we should add country_code as well (ISO country code). To make it backward compatible we need to check at the start if the field exists and only push to the database in that case. Will add tomorrow.

On the ship name missing and call sign. Do you have a few examples of which ones are missing? Wondering if there might be a bug then but need to be able to reproduce.

Thanks!

Example:

The country code is in the full JSON decomposition, but might require adding -M M in some cases:

AIS-catcher (build Oct 16 2025) v0.62-162-g7925148b
(C) Copyright 2021-2025 jvde-github and other contributors
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
NMEA: received !AIVDM,1,1,,A,13U0O`0000QcfI4Ehv`FCWHn00SH,0*13 from station 0.
{"class":"AIS","device":"AIS-catcher","version":0,"driver":0,"hardware":"","scaled":true,"channel":"A","nmea":["!AIVDM,1,1,,A,13U0O`0000QcfI4Ehv`FCWHn00SH,0*13"],"type":1,"repeat":0,"mmsi":240132000,"country":"Greece","country_code":"GR","status":0,"status_text":"Under way using engine","turn_unscaled":0,"turn":0,"speed":0.000000,"accuracy":true,"lon":23.532856,"lat":38.037601,"course":161.400009,"heading":236,"second":27,"maneuver":0,"raim":false,"radio":2264,"sync_state":0,"slot_timeout":0,"slot_offset":2264}

[JBX77]

I have this MMSI in ais_vessel without name and callsign: 244750193 (Cargo ship: Christian, NL)

I have already added a table with vessel types (in a separate schema) and I was planning to do the same with the country codes (first 3 characters of MMSI) using this list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_identification_digits

[jvde-github]

That is the way to do it indeed. Do you still need it from AIS-catcher then or ok for now? Sounds like you are good.

I will test the mmsi you mention to see if callsign and name properly flow.

[JBX77]

I guess I'm good for now. I'm creating a couple of tables in a custom schema and I'll create a view to pull the information that is relevant for my use in HomeAssistant (with the country description and vessel type description). When I'm done with this, I'll share the script. Maybe it can be included in the create tables sql, or it might be useful for someone else.
Thank you for investigating why some ships don't store the name and call sign in table ais_vessel

[JBX77]

I was wrong, MMSI 244750193 is not showing up with it's name in the web viewer. However I can find the name and other details through other sources. Is there another way I can pull this info? Is there a list of known MMSI numbers that I can import in a custom table? Is there a free API I can use? I mean, the name is right there on the site https://www.aiscatcher.org/ship/details/244750193

[jvde-github]

aishub has an API, and community hub you link here, hopefully at some point as well