Radar Debate

[sunchaser]

When on the fly bridge close to array we normally have the Furuno on standby only unless weather less than optimal. Then we are at lower helm using radar on as required.

 

[IRENE]

My dad used to sit on the flybridge about 3’ behind a Decca 110 open array, directly in the beam, when it was foggy. Mom was below with her head buried in the hood so she could see the CRT display. They both had an intercom handset screwed in their ears, and we would bomb along at 18 knots. Didn’t kill dad, he is still here.

 

[clyde]

my old FURUNO book says to put them on standby for a few minutes, before turning off...clyde

 

[jkmacleod]

Hours, hours, hours

Like any piece of equipment, components will degrade with use. There is no reason to run your radar on days with good visibility. Always at night and periods where visibility is at all restricted

 

[Olebird]

The physiological impact of your "radioactive" 4KW radar is far less than an impact with a 400 ton freighter... or yakking on your cell phone 8hrs a day.

 

[rgano]

This was hashed over pretty thoroughly a few weeks ago. The consensuses was: yes.

Not MY consensus. Standby with circuits warmed makes a lot of sense in any visibility not necessitating its actual use in active mode. Constant transmission ages the magnetron and such like circuits over time.

 

[localboy]

I never power it up unless we're out at night or expect a heavy fog. I don't think my radar is scanning more than 10-12 hours a year.

Ditto. If visibility is miles why, exactly, do I need radar?

 

[MYTraveler]

Ditto. If visibility is miles why exactly do I need radar?

Two reasons: 1. You can use its Arpa / Marpa feature to warn of collision courses that your eyeballs could easily miss, and 2. Gives you practice correlating a radar echo with reality.

 

[FoxtrotCharlie]

May be a bit off of this thread - our boat came with an older Raytheon R20 Radar in great condition - head unit located in saloon - still works beautifully. Any way to get this to show up on a modern chartplotter/mfd, or is that a bridge too far for this old unit? Thanks

 

[Codger2]

Two reasons: 1. You can use its Arpa / Marpa feature to warn of collision courses that your eyeballs could easily miss, and 2. Gives you practice correlating a radar echo with reality.

I couldn't agree more!

 

[FlyWright]

Like any piece of equipment, components will degrade with use. There is no reason to run your radar on days with good visibility. Always at night and periods where visibility is at all restricted

see below...

Two reasons: 1. You can use its Arpa / Marpa feature to warn of collision courses that your eyeballs could easily miss, and 2. Gives you practice correlating a radar echo with reality.

MT's right, IMO. Although my radar isn't fancy enough for ARPA/MARPA, I do use it in good weather to correlate boat, obstruction and traffic returns. In my local waters, my radar shows the balls suspended in high tension lines running over the water. If I didn't have regular experience with those, I might easily mistake them for an obstacle or vessel.

Mine is probably a 1990 radar but it still works great. I would never avoid using a radar with the thought that I was extending its lifetime. With all due respect, that's fantasy rationalization, IMO. I also want to remain familiar with the controls and features.

If it's going to degrade over time, you'll best notice it if you're using it regularly and your trained eye notes the degraded performance.

Mine has proven itself to be very useful at a moment's notice many times because it was ON and adjusted properly. If you've got to start pushing buttons or making adjustments to get the display you need RIGHT NOW, it's probably not going to help much and might even cause an unneeded distraction at a critical moment on the trip.

 

[rolomart3]

Stand by state in radars

"Stand by" state in radars could very well become a thing of the past. Further proliferation of solid-state Microwave Power Modules (MPMs) is replacing magnetron and klystron vacum tubes of earlier radars.
As with any vacum tube, its emission of electrons from a heated cathode requires a cesium surface that wears out typically in about 5,000 hours. For this reason, it makes sense to shut down the heating filament of the cathode when not monitoring the radar display. This shutdown state is achieved by placing the radar system in the stand by state; thereby, extending the tube's operating life. With solid-state MPMs, the stand by state is no longer required.

 

[markpierce]

see below...



MT's right, IMO. Although my radar isn't fancy enough for ARPA/MARPA, I do use it in good weather to correlate boat, obstruction and traffic returns. In my local waters, my radar shows the balls suspended in high tension lines running over the water. If I didn't have regular experience with those, I might easily mistake them for an obstacle or vessel. ...

Yeah. I didn't figure it out until observing the radar image disappeared when getting closer to the high-tension lines.