Broadband radar cable

[CYQK]

Getting ready to consider a radar purchase and now would be a great time to run the cables
Like garmin stuff
Anyone do this recently that could tell what to purchase
Thks
Gary

 

[dlochner]

Did this a couple of years ago with a B&G radar. The cable probably comes with the radar unit. At least with B&G, there are 2 components, the radar dome and a separate processor unit. The cable consists of an ethernet cable and power cables encased in a single package.

Garmin probably has manuals on their website that you can download. I know B&G does.

 

[CYQK]

Thks

 

[CloudDiver]

Check the specs of your new Radar (radome) choices... Solid state is what you want. No moving parts inside, lower power consumption, better radar picture quality. Im not certain but I think they basically use Cat 6e cable which includes 12V PoE (power over ethernet), so basically at least one strand of the 6 cable strands in the group provides 12V DC to the Radome. I'm not in the market for a new one so I haven't looked closely at what's available, almost all my Radar experience comes from the US Navy and the massively powerful SPY 1 array on my two DDG's. I did install a commercial FURUNO radar on my last ship (we use commercial radars for deception), and the dome only used a CAT5 cable connection with no separate power cable that I recall. The unit did come a 50 ft cable, it did not seem to be anything special or 'Marine Grade'. In the future when I buy a new electronics group, my biggest interest is in SIMRAD/Navico forward scanning sonar, soI'll want to buy my other components to work with that family group. I also really like the Vulcan Chart plotters.

 

[jmce1587]

Recently installed Garmin 18HD radar and and compatible chart plotter. All cabling included with units.

 

[CloudDiver]

Recently installed Garmin 18HD radar and and compatible chart plotter. All cabling included with units.

Is it Cat 5 or Cat 6 for the Radome, or something else?

 

[Gunni]

CloudDiver, the Navico RADAR does have a rotating array. It saves energy by not using a power-hog transmitter. But it still rotates the array to sweep returns. Possibly the best part is you can keep it in low-power standby and bring the RADAR back to operational in a second. No long warmup, great on a battery driven sailboat situation.

 

[dlochner]

Solid state is what you want. No moving parts inside, lower power consumption, better radar picture quality. Im not certain but I think they basically use Cat 6e cable which includes 12V PoE (power over ethernet), so basically at least one strand of the 6 cable strands in the group provides 12V DC to the Radome.

Yes, solid state is the way to go.

The Navico/B&G/Simrad/Lowrance has a single cable with separate power and ethernet within on jacket. Not sure if the cable is Cat 5 or 6, the boat end of the cable has a 2 wire power connector and an RJ-45 connector for the data.

The antenna does rotate, but it does not have a power hungry magnetron. There are actually 2 antenna units with in the dome that rotate simultaneously. This allows one antenna to be set on close range and one on a long range. The MFD (Zeus2) can show both images. The technology for the radar is pretty cool. It uses frequency modulation to determine distance, very similar to the CHIRP depth sounders. It is able to use very low power to achieve high resolution returns. This also makes for a much safer broadcast, fewer fried brain cells if a brain gets in front of the radome.

 

[Jackdaw]

CloudDiver, the Navico RADAR does have a rotating array. It saves energy by not using a power-hog transmitter. But it still rotates the array to sweep returns. Possibly the best part is you can keep it in low-power standby and bring the RADAR back to operational in a second. No long warmup, great on a battery driven sailboat situation.

Indeed, the only way you can tell it’s active is the light mechanical ‘ whirr” as the small IC board is spun under the dome shell.

 

[CYQK]

Goin to miami boatshow will ask there

 

[CloudDiver]

Thanks for the tip about the solid state radar actually having moving parts... When I read about the technology a few years ago I basically assumed it would function the way I was familiar with phased array panels on my old ship. For those that aren't familiar the pic below is my old Ship DDG 69, the large panel just below the bridge windows is one of the 4 fixed array panels. They pulse in sequence, computer controlled, based on desired range, power, and atmospheric conditions. Maybe someday small vessel arrays will be arranged like this inside of small domes and actually have no moving parts, or even actually start using small fixed panels facing 4 directions. In terms of power, I imagine that at the moment is actually less power consumption to have a rotating array rather pulse on/off in sequence. Who knows, maybe this is the next eventual step after the current solid state form factor.

 

[ifmdalvey]

Cloud Driver, your SPY1 is a small version of this RAF AN/FPS126. If you could ever get inside a phased array radar, (i have) you will find hundreds of radar horns (the bit the energy comes out from) .Theses horns are electronically steered with no moving parts, a very complicated system requiring a very large surface area that is certainly not available on a sail boat.

 

[Gunni]

Much less power than your old phased array SPY. The Navico multifrequency radar broadcasts about 0.20 watts, compare that to traditional small boat radars (2000 watt). And a whole lot more for SPY...And because it is not pulsing but instead constantly sending and receiving it has virtually no near-in bang. But then we’re not out there tracking the space shuttle!