I'm thinking of purchasing a used Furuno radar system that is 1996 vintage.
Has the technology changed very much from the 90's?...
Has the technology changed very much from the 90's?...
Radar
- Thread starter thaeni
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I'm no expert
although I do drive by a Holiday Inn Express every day. I think what you'll find is that prior to the recent development of broadband digital radar, the basic mechanism in which a magnetron was used to generate microwaves, which are broadcast and received by a rotating antenna, has remained basically the same since the 1940's. So provided it's working, your 1996 Furano radar system probably has a reasonably effective antenna system. What has changed a whole bunch since then though is the electronics behind how the signal is processed and displayed after it's received. A 1996 system will naturally use a power hog CRT display, most likely monochrome, with fewer of the auto-tuning and self-calibrating features that would probably be built into a more recent model. I expect you'll have to to play with the gain more to hit that sweet spot where ground clutter drops out but you're still picking up good returns on actual targets, and you won't have colors to help figure out what's what. I'm just opinionating here, but I think any radar is better than no radar, but a 14 year old one most likely isn't going to have the useful range, discrimination, and stability of a recent model. But remember, everything is a good buy if the price is right.
Depends On Price
See the link for description. If you get it cheap enough with some purchase security, it looks to be a nice, serviceable unit that is not obsolete by any means.
http://www.furunousa.com/products/p...roducts+:+Previous+Products+:+Radars+:+Radars
See the link for description. If you get it cheap enough with some purchase security, it looks to be a nice, serviceable unit that is not obsolete by any means.
http://www.furunousa.com/products/p...roducts+:+Previous+Products+:+Radars+:+Radars
Suggest buying a discontinued Garmin 24 digital radar. I purchased one last December for $400 from West Marine. I tied it into a low cost Garmin 3210 Chartplotter, also purchased from West Marine,. Both work great.
While it might seem like a good deal, you're really buying dated technology. Would you buy a 15 year old laptop computer? Same idea. In addition, magnetrons tend to have a limited life span. I'd do as sugessted and see if you can find a late model discontinued unit on sale (with a warranty).
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