Suggestions/comments for new radar

[Don S/V ILLusion]

My winter project this year is a new radar and though it would be good to solicit comments from those who have recently done it or are also considering choosing a new unit.
If anyone has any suggestions or recent experience. I'd be interested in knowing what you choose and why and if you have any good or bad comments.
As I already have two chartplotters, one up and one down, it makes no difference to me whether the new radar has that capability nor does it have to tie into my existing Autohelm instruments. The existing radar to be replaced is the old non-weatherproof green screen Ray RX20 which has served well but is usually useless as it is down at the nav desk.

thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Rick D]

Altho

... I have an RC520, I went for a Furuno when my below-decks Furuno CRT crashed. I had a 1600 on my last boat and put a 1700 series on this one which is an LCD, but put it outside. I really like the user interface on it much better than the Raymarine which I have also spent a lot of time with. Having said that, if you have to radar-capable Ray charplotters, it would seem a waste to not use that capability.

 

[Steve A.]

I have a '92 H28 and sail in Maine -- so I am also thinking about installing a radar. West Marine has been having sales on the "starter kit" that includes a Raymarine C70 display and the raydome. The good thing is you can overlay your chart with the radar scan. Therefore a buoy or land/rocks should match up with the chart. I will be following this thread to see what others with experience suggest.

 

[Maine Sail]

Don..

I chose the Garmin 18" HD radome with a 3200 series plotter/display. If your displays will accept a dome, you did not say what series displays, you may want to stick with Raymarine. If they won't accept dome the Garmin 18HD dome can't be beat.

My previous system, purchased new in 2005, was a C-80 with 18" dome and I was not a repeat customer! I could not be happier with the Garmin plotter and radar..

I found the accuracy of returns far greater than any of my previous radars including Raymarine and Furuno in the 18" dome size.

Screen Shot - A Morris with radar reflector and a C-30 without one:

This shot was taken less than three minutes after first powering the new system up. Look at how clean the returns are with ZERO adjustments..

Radar Overlay- Notice the red nun and accuracy:

 

[Tim R.]

Second the overlay

I also have a Garmin 18" radome(non HD) connected to my 3206. My previous Furuno 1650 was a great unit until it died. Adding the GMR18 was very easy and now I only have one display at the helm for my chartplotter and radar. I will eventually add a second, smaller charplotter below for redundancy.

 

[newly anonymous]

E series autohelm

I have an E-120 at the helm and an E-80 in the nav station. No complaints. Having a programmable system that overlays data and works with a repeater is sweet. I love how it integrates everything from AIS to the fish finder.

 

[Steve A.]

Re: Second the overlay

"Maine Sail" thanks for the pictures. I think I need to look into the Garmin! I have a Garmin iQue3600 PDA with the chart chip and like it a lot (I use it as a back-up to my Magellan GPS chartplotter).

 

[Maine Sail]

Some Numbers..

Garmin

18" Dome
15.8 Lbs.
5.0 degree beam width
4KW
36 NM Range
High Definition or Non High Definition
Price Range $800.00 (Non HD) to $1099.00 (HD)

Raymarine

18" Dome
21 Lbs.
4.9 degree band width
2KW
24 NM Range
Standard Definition no HD option
Price Range $1090.00+/-

Furuno

18" Dome
Ship weight (24 Lbs.)
5.2 Degree band width
2.2 KW
24 NM Range
Standard Definition no HD in 18" dome
Price Range $1150+/-

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Thanks guys for the opinions. It would appear from the limited sampling there is no clear winner which is reassuring and as no one has any negative comments, I take it to mean there is no "bad" choice.
I often wished we as sailors had something similar to "eHam" as ham radio operators have which is a great source of info on user reviews and comments on radio equipment but for boating equipment which can be very informative when choosing new stuff. I'm tempted to start one myself except I'm not knowledgeable enough on web technology...
Thanks again.

 

[ITMaster]

Will You Go With

Mounting it on the mast, or putting it on a pole at the stern with a gimbaled mount?

Mounting it on the mast would require that you unstep the mast in order to get the mount in place as well as run the wiring, correct?

With it gimbaled, when the boat heels over and pitches and yaws, then the tractor beam will continue to send out and be received at the level wouldn't it? Wouldn't this make it more responsive and accurate? Or...is the mounting location a moot point?

Where an advantage is gained from going up the mast with regard to "seeing" further out and over the curvature, the higher one goes up reduces the close in range effectiveness as well, does it not?

I ask since I am in an information gathering stage at this point in time and am trying to take all factors into consideration.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Mounting it on the mast, or putting it on a pole at the stern with a gimbaled mount?

Mounting it on the mast would require that you unstep the mast in order to get the mount in place as well as run the wiring, correct?

With it gimbaled, when the boat heels over and pitches and yaws, then the tractor beam will continue to send out and be received at the level wouldn't it? Wouldn't this make it more responsive and accurate? Or...is the mounting location a moot point?

Where an advantage is gained from going up the mast with regard to "seeing" further out and over the curvature, the higher one goes up reduces the close in range effectiveness as well, does it not?

I ask since I am in an information gathering stage at this point in time and am trying to take all factors into consideration.

I plan to replace the existing mast mount dome with a new one - running the cables in my boat and it's mast isn't as bad as some.
You are correct regarding the effect of heeling on compromising the beam angle but it seems to me that the only times I've really needed the radar, the weather was too bad to sail anyway so this is a moot point in my case.

Never noticed any degredation of image close-in to the boat by having the dome up 30 ft but I imagine it may. I've been schooled into thinking that if something is 25 yds away, it's probably too late by then and I should have seen it at 1 mile or more.