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Old 07-19-2019, 11:09 PM   #21
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By contrast, I've gotten tech support from Raymarine on the phone 2-3 times -- and they are 0 for 5 or 6 in terms of actually answering questions. Admittedly, my questions probably werent common ones, but they didnt even try to go back and look. All questions eventually got answered, via forums or empirically, so they were answerable.
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Old 07-20-2019, 04:50 AM   #22
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Have been working directly with Comnav. Haven’t purchased anything yet and they are still extremely responsive. That alone will sell the product. Comnav is connected with Si Tex by the way. They also have excellent support.
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Old 07-20-2019, 05:14 AM   #23
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I don't mean anything bad, and my concerns may not be relevant anymore, but I recommend you download the manuals for the system(s) you are considering and see if they meet your needs. My experience with SiTex is that the equipment works, is very similar to other manufacturer's items in they way they perform and operate, but the company can't (or couldn't) write a manual that makes sense or is organized in a way that is easy to find what you need to know. Also check the capability of the equipment to be networked with other items already in your system. Their components may have NMEA-0183 or -2000 interfaces, but the implementation may be slightly non-standard or use legacy physical connections.

Best of luck with whatever you choose!
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Old 07-20-2019, 07:05 AM   #24
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Haven't had a chance to use it much underway and still getting familiarized, but happy so far. Operation is much simpler and straightforward compared to the old Raytheon which involved lots of tuning (and was intermittent anyway).

Display unit is large enough for my old eyes to interpret easily and fits nicely on my bridge deck. Installation was pretty much plug & play except for power hookup - but that was simple also (note that I don't have it interfaced with anything else). Hardest part, not surprisingly, was routing the antenna cable.

Only minor complaint was the price Furuno wanted for the antenna mast mount, a pretty simple looking bracket. So being an economy minded boater (and of Scots descent), I made a platform to adapt to the old Raytheon mounting.
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Old 07-20-2019, 07:22 AM   #25
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Have been working directly with Comnav. Haven’t purchased anything yet and they are still extremely responsive. That alone will sell the product. Comnav is connected with Si Tex by the way. They also have excellent support.
I know they share some autopilot gear, but I don't see where Comnav is marketing radars at the moment. Are they indeed supporting radar? They are a great company that markets plenty of other stuff, so it would make sense.

Getting back to Furuno, I should not that they have a service and call/email support center in Baltimore as well, very nice and extremely helpful folks there.
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Old 07-20-2019, 08:52 AM   #26
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Problem with Raymarine is that they don't support older legacy products.

Raymarine don't have parts for their legacy electronics, because of their ownership changes in the last 25 years.

Their support goes up and down depending on who owns them at the time.
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Old 07-20-2019, 09:28 AM   #27
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I have a Furuno 1800 that (amazingly) is still operational after 25 years. Seriously considering the Furuno 1815 for the upgrade. I have several friends with newly installed Garmin systems with all the bells and whistles. Impressive, but I prefer dedicated electronics for the various systems. Not too concerned about interfacing things..
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Old 07-20-2019, 09:53 AM   #28
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When I see a Garmin or Raymarine radar on a Coast Guard boat or a Washington State Ferry, I might consider other brands.
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Old 07-20-2019, 10:23 AM   #29
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When I see a Garmin or Raymarine radar on a Coast Guard boat or a Washington State Ferry, I might consider other brands.
OK! I get it....you don't like Raymarine!
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Old 07-20-2019, 11:32 AM   #30
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Agree on Furuno support; you can't buy anything directly from their Maryland office but they were very helpful in finding local retail outlets for added gear. I just thought the mast mount was way over priced for what it appeared to be, and that didn't include the markup from the local supplier. But, that's boating and it was easy to fashion a piece of StarBoard into an adaptor to the old Raytheon mounting bracket ($64 vs. c$475).
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Old 07-20-2019, 11:48 AM   #31
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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
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Old 07-20-2019, 06:27 PM   #32
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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.
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Old 07-21-2019, 09:14 AM   #33
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"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!
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Old 07-21-2019, 11:20 AM   #34
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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.
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Old 07-21-2019, 11:45 AM   #35
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I inherited Raymarine and Simrad on past boats. When I was able to choose the system, it was Furuno.
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Old 07-21-2019, 12:14 PM   #36
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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.
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Old 07-21-2019, 01:40 PM   #37
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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!
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