Radar Recommendation?

[psneeld]

Basing what large organizations buy for fleet ops and why they do is not necessarily a great concept for scaling down to pleasure boats.


Low bidder a good concept?


Look at some of the craft the USCG put radar on.. they aren't livjng out their service lives due to major engineering flaws

 

[PopeyeGB36]

That's exactly what I did. I have a new Quantum 2 with Doppler. When I bought this boat it had a Robertson autopilot, a Raytheon Ray66 VHF radio, a Datamarine depth sounder that sort of worked, the chart plotter was a green screen dot matrix. I thought I'd bought a museum.



Since I had used Raymarine on my previous boat, and since Raymarine has done the marine electronics integration better than anyone, I bought all Raymarine. Very happy. Touch screen displays, intuitive user interface, plug and play interconnections that hew to the message protocols of NMEA 2000 and Ethernet.



Sorry about the sales pitch here, but I'm an engineer and I appreciate the fact that it's always the interfaces between devices that are trouble.

 

[Codger2]

"Since I had used Raymarine on my previous boat, and since Raymarine has done the marine electronics integration better than anyone, I bought all Raymarine. Very happy. Touch screen displays, intuitive user interface, plug and play interconnections that hew to the message protocols of NMEA 2000 and Ethernet."

I made a similar decision on my electronics suite and have had a very similar experience. I love Raymarine electronics!

 

[Jon H]

I have a Garmin 1222 XSV plotter with knobs - which I ordered.
I can be radar or plotter or spilt screen.


I find Furuno and JRC to be the most common on ships.

 

[Fletcher500]

I inherited Raymarine and Simrad on past boats. When I was able to choose the system, it was Furuno.

 

[Seevee]

I agree! My plotter has Hybrid Touch as well as knobs and I really prefer the knobs. When bouncing around in a seaway, grabbing and twisting a knob
is much easier than trying to pinch or expand by touch.

Yes, grabbing knobs are my preference.

Codger,

Fortunately Garmin has come out with a "knob" solution. Looks pretty good.
As for the radar, I like the Furuno also, but lately would buy the same brand as the plotter to avoid the issue of one mfg blaming the other when there's issues. But for the most part, new electronics are getting better and better... and more compatible. I don't think one could go too far wrong with any one of them.

My Simrad 24 is a very good entry level radar for coastal cruising. The fishing crowd would probably not be impressed, but to avoid bumping something, does pretty well. However, I wish I had the very latest doppler features.

 

[Codger2]

Fortunately Garmin has come out with a "knob" solution. Looks pretty good.
As for the radar, I like the Furuno also, but lately would buy the same brand as the plotter to avoid the issue of one mfg blaming the other when there's issues. But for the most part, new electronics are getting better and better... and more compatible. I don't think one could go too far wrong with any one of them.

My Simrad 24 is a very good entry level radar for coastal cruising. The fishing crowd would probably not be impressed, but to avoid bumping something, does pretty well. However, I wish I had the very latest doppler features.

I agree whole heartedly with your post! It all boils down to the purchase being what attracts you. As you stated, they're all pretty damn good!