Rookie Radar Question

Sorry about the upsides down photo. Don’t understand why one is good and another is upside down.

Fletcher500 said:

You could put a wedge in there (made for specifically for radars) but not sure that would be enough. Looks to be off plane by quite a bit.

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Yep, up for a look see now.

Have resin, glass and ply on board so more destructive modifications may be on the cards.

My experience is that the vertical range of radars is wide. Guessing it is something like 45 degrees. My level radar unit detects targets (radar reflector on power-lines hanging over the strait) over 150 feet high within a quarter mile.

My radar has a 25 degree vertical range. I don’t know of any that are as large as 45, but there may be a few. All of the ones that I have owned have been 25.

You also have to take in to account how you place it in relation to other antennae such as domes with satellite dishes. I've been told that the radar will fry those. You don't want to put it at the same level as the domes. I'd talk to the MFG. In the picture you can see that the radar is mounted below the domes. The posts for the domes and FLIR appear to be in the way of the radar but they are not big enough to interfere. I get a clear 360 degree view.

You might want to put it on a mast on the back of your flybridge. Just make sure that it's higher than your bimini. The bimini may not be an issue but where it's mounted now looks like there is fiberglass behind it.

AKDoug said:

Lousy location for any kind of radar, but broadband puts out very little energy and definitely won't irradiate you. It also doesn't reach very far, best useful range of only a couple of miles.
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Our Simrad 4G Broadband radar easily sees out to, and is useful to, 10 miles, which for us is all we need in the protected waters of coast BC.

psneeld said:

Just do a clearing turn if you think something could be behind you.

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A "Crazy Ivan"!
I agree with moving it up with an arch or pole. While poking along at 7 kts in the fog and running from the lower helm, its nice to see what is running up your butt.

High Wire said:

A "Crazy Ivan"!
I agree with moving it up with an arch or pole. While poking along at 7 kts in the fog and running from the lower helm, its nice to see what is running up your butt.

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Gotta know who is in your baffles......

I understand the real world implications of radar installations as well as the cover your ass statements of the manufacturer.

I just thought with all the dockside rhetoric that what the manufacturer actually had to say might be useful, kind of a baseline. I also chose that particular model as representative of what a lot of FT peeps might have aboard

boomerang said:

Keys, that's a lovely copy & paste from Furuno but his 1600 series won't do transmit blanking sectors and anyway, it is about the same power as a large microwave oven. If he were to unscrew the lid, grab the rotator & stare into it while transmitting on hi power, at maybe 6" no less, he would probably do damage to his eyes. Otherwise , there really isn't any need to be too upset.
I know radars pretty well & BTW, I had the exact same setup on my Bertram years ago (I later replaced the Furuno with a 4kW antenna...twice the power... in the same location) & used that radar a lot & my retinas are still intact!

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Dirt Doc, you are referring to the magnetron radars. As noted by several people in this thread, the newer SS radars have a very low output and will not “fry” stuff including adjacent electronics. Obstruction to view by nearby sat dishes, whips etc...yes, that is a concern regardless of the type of radar.

Conrad, I found about the same effective range with our previous 4G which I agree is plenty far for a rec boater offshore.

Keysdisease said:

I understand the real world implications of radar installations as well as the cover your ass statements of the manufacturer.

I just thought with all the dockside rhetoric that what the manufacturer actually had to say might be useful, kind of a baseline. I also chose that particular model as representative of what a lot of FT peeps might have aboard

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Keys, my reply came off as sounding kind of snarky. I apologize. I guess I was getting irritated with the "pundits" going on & on with all of the warnings of the deadly radiation being emitted by these killer recreational-use radars...

psneeld said:

many RADARs mounted like that just program a dead zone where it doesnt even transmit in the zone where the bridge seating is... so radiation is not sn issue.

while knowing what is behind you is nice, for many cruisers who chose to travel in daylight and fair weather. a dead zone aft is no big deal.

if you cant live with thst, mount it elsewhere but that usually is inconvenient so people fall back to this option .

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I have great visibility forward, not so good aft. I have an aft facing camera that shows on one of my MFDs which helps. I find that in daylight, the radar view aft is the most useful. I go slow so I am almost always the boat being overtaken.

Power densities over 1000W/m2 are dangerous and may result in skin burns, cataracts, etc. Older Raymarine magnetron radars put out 10W/M2 at 1 meters. Not exactly dangerous. I would not want it at eye height continuously but radars are pulsed so it's probably OK. Digital radars are not an issue.

You should be able to setup a no transmit zone in your MFD. 360 display of targets would be great but 270 display is a lot better than 0.

I was talking to Furono Tech Support today regarding an unrelated matter, and asked the tech to his get opinion.

Basically, as described by most people who have posted:

The higher output open arrays are not going to cause damage on short exposure, but its best to avoid when possible, and you don't want one spinning in directly of your face for hours on end.

Newer solid states are similar to a cell phone and no issues having one emitting nearby for a long period of time.

psneeld said:

Just do a clearing turn if you think something could be behind you.

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On submarines, we call it "clearing the baffles" but, I still want to see what's behind me. My RADAR does a 360 sweep I also have a Flir IR camera pointing aft. Yes, great for backing down but also great to see 'someone' approaching from aft.

I am about to install a new Simrad 4G broadband radar on my arch and am debating whether I should buy a mount to raise the unit 5” - 10” so the beam clears my bimini. Should I be concerned about this? Not sure if the bimini fabric and/or frame will reduce the ability to see objects close to the bow. I don’t have any obstructions on the sides or back.

brewster812 said:

I am about to install a new Simrad 4G broadband radar on my arch and am debating whether I should buy a mount to raise the unit 5” - 10” so the beam clears my bimini. Should I be concerned about this? Not sure if the bimini fabric and/or frame will reduce the ability to see objects close to the bow. I don’t have any obstructions on the sides or back.

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My old boat had the Simard 4G mounted too close to the hard top and it definitely affected performance. Simrad manual has specs. Regarding whether fabric would affect it, I don't know. You may want to call Simard TS. Their TS is not known to be great, but people on other forums have stated it has been much better the past couple years. You will like the 4G. It is solid, and supposedly they have finally fixed the Marpa function.

Raising it will also affect your ability to see things close to the bow.

Benthic2 said:

Raising it will also affect your ability to see things close to the bow.

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Raising it is more about achieving longer distances than seeing things close to the bow. I could watch people’s head swim by while at anchor with the 4G and it was not very high. Interesting to see, but not very useful. The scales I generally use are 1/4 mile, 1 mile, and 6 mile.

proper tilt eliminates some of the issue with high mounts and bow rise....

you pay in lost recetion aft in some situations.