What size? What price range?Looking for recommendations on the best radar.
Looking for recommendations on the best radar.
For fun, I just scrolled through Defenders selection of standalone radar sets. Four Furuno, one Sitex. None are N2K compatible, not all accept GPS input, the combination means no AIS/heading info. Adding a second display at a flybridge is not possible with most.
Assuming the price point is not $10k and above for a commercial set, why is the OP asking for a standalone radar? These days, it's like wanting to buy a new car but it must have hand crank windows. Unicorn comes go mind.
Peter
Interesting that the newer stand alone radars won't take heading and AIS input because they are not N2K compatible. I've used many radars over the years without N2K on board. They accepted heading and AIS, depending of course on the output of the heading and AIS data.
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None are N2K compatible, not all accept GPS input, the combination means no AIS/heading info.
That would mean to ARPA (or MARPA), which would severely limit the collision avoidance value. Perhaps there is another way to provide heading data, such as NMEA 0183.
I agree. This book is pretty good:Another edit: I also suggest you get a book and start reading about radar in general so start understanding what some of the differences mean. It does not need to be highly technical but describe what a radar can and cannot do, most of the many features and what they can do for you.
After that then get online and download some mfgr. manuals.
I much prefer stand alone systems and have 2 stand alone chart plotters/depth finders in 12" and 8" size. Yes, it requires two GPS sensors and two transducers.
A lot is sacrificed to have independent systems. Instead of two identical depth sounders, you could have a 200hz and a 50hz, or a forward-scan, or more of a fish-finder. If networked, you could select the one that makes the most sense for your current conditions. You may want to run your radar in dual-range mode on separate screens, which you can with a networked system. Instead of having two independent GPSs, you could have one GPS and one heading sensor (which is more accurate for A/P and radar overlay if you use it). There are times where a radar is useless but a chart plotter is important such as a channel - with MFDs, you can change the size of the display.
I can think of dozens and dozens of reasons to have a fully networked MFD-based system. I can only think of one for having a standalone system - redundancy (okay, maybe cost). Over the years, I have had a 25-year old radar crap out on me, and that's about it. I have PC's die that were running charting SW, but the onboard MFDs seem pretty reliable, so the risk reduction of going standalone is miniscule compared to the lost functionality.
At least in my opinion.
Peter
Hands down - Furuno. Check out all the commercial fishing boats and you'll understand why,.