Transaxial
Senior Member
I recently bought a 40' Palmer FD trawler that was converted to a 2 stateroom live aboard. It was completely rebuilt in 1998 and some of the nav equipment may be older than that. It has a JRC 3000 radar that works fine at a distance but is not very clear on close items. I have looked at packages of equipment and wondered about adding a Lowrance 3G unit for better fog and night running. I will be mostly coastal cruising in the Vancouver Island area and think that a good close in radar might be a good thing for getting home in the fog. This new radar technology may be unproven but is it the answer for what I need and as a backup to the old JRC (not at the same time)?
Another old unit is the depth sounder, a Marinetek Echo 200 that seems to blank out at the least opportune times. The other piece of the puzzle is the old Dell laptop with GPS and back up camera and has all the west coast charts for US and Canada. It works fine but maybe a new plotter is a good idea to combine depth sounder and better charts and all the other newer features. I was looking at a package that has a Simrad NSS12 evo3 that is capable of running the ForwardScan sonar, internal wifi to connect to an ipad for the upper helm, AIS, and 34 channel GPS/Glonass receiver as well as a long list of features that I am not aware of what they do. I am not the electronics techie guy and would rather rely on the one NSS12 to do most of the functions in what seems like a fairly well rounded package than to piece together a whole bunch of components and software. Hats off to you guys that can figure that stuff all out but it is not my strong point. And I will have the old laptop as a second screen and a backup. I am looking for opinions on this brand of equipment and specifically the Lowrance 3G radar and the ForwardScan sonar. I have read some good and some not about this brand family and realize there is always the preference thing but is it a mistake?
Another old unit is the depth sounder, a Marinetek Echo 200 that seems to blank out at the least opportune times. The other piece of the puzzle is the old Dell laptop with GPS and back up camera and has all the west coast charts for US and Canada. It works fine but maybe a new plotter is a good idea to combine depth sounder and better charts and all the other newer features. I was looking at a package that has a Simrad NSS12 evo3 that is capable of running the ForwardScan sonar, internal wifi to connect to an ipad for the upper helm, AIS, and 34 channel GPS/Glonass receiver as well as a long list of features that I am not aware of what they do. I am not the electronics techie guy and would rather rely on the one NSS12 to do most of the functions in what seems like a fairly well rounded package than to piece together a whole bunch of components and software. Hats off to you guys that can figure that stuff all out but it is not my strong point. And I will have the old laptop as a second screen and a backup. I am looking for opinions on this brand of equipment and specifically the Lowrance 3G radar and the ForwardScan sonar. I have read some good and some not about this brand family and realize there is always the preference thing but is it a mistake?
