Radar Flag

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Warren Milberg

Warren Milberg

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Dec 1, 1999
2,391
Hunter 28.5 Chesapeake Bay
Anyone out there have any first hand experience, pro or con, with the "Radar Flag?" Seems like a good, however pricey, idea to me: Two specially designed and constructed national flags hold between them the "Rip-Stop" nylon lining which is impregnated with silver, then urethane coated for protection from the elements. Whenever you have your flag/ensign flying, you also have a radar reflector up at the same time.
 
J

jimq26

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Jun 5, 2004
860
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They simply are useless!! Look nice though.

When tested by an independent radar laboratory they were found to be practically useless - just a tad worse than the Mobri unit. US Sailing and West Marine published the whole series of tests done by the lab - check their web site for the results. The Echomaster (see chandlery on this site) is one of the best.
 
Ross

Ross

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Jun 15, 2004
14,693
Islander/Wayfairer 30 sail number 25 Perryville,Md.
Radar has to have a reflective surface

to return a strong enough signal for the display. Have a weak return and it gets lost in the clutter. The flag would present a very small surface area either upwind or downwind. A bag of corner reflectors might work. Or the club burgee on all four surfaces of a tetrahedron made of corner reflectors. But if you couldn't see the flag up close then radar wouldn't get a usable reflection.
 
A

Anchor Down

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Jan 4, 2006
282
West Coast
Radar Flag a Half-masted Idea

Specifically, the radar flag gave a return when the signal hit it at 0° (signal is perpendicular to the surface of the flag), but at any angle, the signal bounced away from the source instead of back to it. In the real world, the radar flag would be useful if you could somehow position your boat so that the flag was always perpendicular to any other boat traffic, a nice trick, indeed.
 
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