Buying a New Radar
You are reading the text-only copy of this article. To access the article as it appeared in PassageMaker Magazine, please log in to purchase and download the PDF version of this article.
Capt. George Vancouver, the temperamental
but skilled English explorer and
navigator, penned the name Desolation
Sound onto a chart of a scattering of
islands lying between Quadra Island and
the mainland of British Columbia more than 200
years ago. One often wonders what funk
inspired that choice. This place usually is just too
beautiful to have such a depressing name.
Today, however, I understand what was bothering
George. We are aboard Quadra, our
42-foot Grand Banks, heading north in Calm
Channel along with six or eight other boats
shooting for slack water at either Yuculta Rapids
or Hole in the Wall.
A summer storm is moving south toward us
and the hills and islands are disappearing, along
with the other yachts in our parade. Rain drops
leave silver streaks as they bounce knee high
from the darkening surface of the water, our
windscreen wipers can’t touch the torrent that is
upon us and the gloomy heart of the storm cloud
still is a mile away, but closing quickly.
We have some advantages George didn’t
dream about. I reach out and switch on the 1981-vintage Decca 125 radar. Above us, the monster
open-array antenna begins to turn and the range
rings glow on the monitor at the lower helm.
Nothing else happens. I twist knobs, although
the radar had been in perfect tune the day
before. I wait, patiently. The old beast takes time
to warm up. Nevertheless, there is no picture.
Suddenly, we’re almost even with George. We
can’t see where we are going, either. We are desolate,
too, and can understand the emotional
turmoil in his heart and mind as he navigated
through drenching, blinding rain in water too
deep to measure, with currents and contrary
winds threatening to carry his fleet onto an
unfriendly shore.
The sheer, rock wall of Maurelle Island is a
faint blur in the distance. I turn toward it, with
the crew watching for other boats lurking in the
rain cloud. The entrance to Hole in the Wall
slowly comes into view and we will make our
date with slack water at the west end of the narrow
3.8-mile-long channel separating Maurelle
from Sonora Island. (Details: Sonora was a 36-
foot sailing vessel in which Juan Francisco de la
Bodega y Quadra, a Spaniard, explored the West Coast from California to Alaska in the 1790s. He
was in these waters at the same time as Capt.
Vancouver, but is not as well remembered.)
Busy as we were, navigating Hole in the Wall
and getting muscled around by the currents that
still flowed near slack that day, one corner of my
brain took time to declare the obvious: the Decca
was DOA and our boating budget was going
to take a hit.
The radar had failed the previous fall. Chuck,
the only Decca electronics technician in Seattle,
pronounced it obsolete and recommended tossing
it. We compromised on a $400 repair budget.
Two transistors had died and because they
worked in pairs the technician recommended
replacing all four. Chuck could locate only two,
and they were in Texas, so we made do.
It failed again while we were cruising through
Desolation Sound on a planned 800-mile circumnavigation
of Vancouver Island. As we
continued to move north along the island’s east
coast, through wet and windy weather, my wife,
Polly, and I worried, debated and fussed: Should
we go without radar? Should we not go?
Were we such wimps? We had cruised for years without radar, Loran C or GPS, occasionally
in the fog. We could get along.
On the other hand, we had been on the west
coast of Vancouver Island twice before, and each
time smothering fog formed quickly during midday
while we were under way, and only radar
made it possible to navigate safely through
island-cluttered Barkley Sound to an anchorage.
Cruising in the fog is tense business. The stomach
tightens, the mouth becomes parched,
knuckles turn white and the senses are confused.
No fun, even with radar.
Radar is no longer a luxury. It is a necessity for
serious cruisers. Wise boaters don’t go out in
dense fog, particularly in crowded waterways,
without compelling reason. But many are caught
by fog while under way and radar is an indispensable
aid in getting home safely.
So, with that view, it would be smart, not
wimpy, to postpone the circumnavigation. I really
wanted to press on—it would be an adventure
of a cruising lifetime and we should go, regardless.
And so the debate continued.
Some new dock friends listened to our story
and recommended canceling the circumnavigation. In Alert Bay, a British Columbia Indian community
on Malcolm Island, we encountered the
crews of two 30-foot sailboats who were headed
around the island, without radar. They
politely hid their scorn.
After several days of this discussion, I used the
cell phone to call an electronics repair shop at
Port Hardy, a fishing port near the north end of
Vancouver Island. Bob, the technician there, said
he knew what ailed our Decca and, after we tied
up, he walked down the dock with a new magnetron
in hand. It could be ours for C$600, plus
an hour’s labor at C$65.
Like his counterpart in Seattle, Bob also had
another recommendation: Replace the old Decca.
He could plug in the new magnetron, but
likely something else would fail, and probably
soon. Go home and buy a new radar, he said.
The conversation soon moved to fishing,
which was heating up in the area, and about
Vancouver Island art. When he left after his visit,
Bob still had the magnetron, plus a check for
an hour of his time.
The next day we motored north to God’s
Pocket, on Hurst Island, and tied to one of two
buoys in front of a small, picturesque fishingand-
diving lodge. The sky was clear, the air
warm…and the debate continued. Should we
go? Yes? No?
We needed an answer. From God’s Pocket
we either would leave for the west coast of
Vancouver Island or turn south and a leisurely
trip home through the beautiful inland
waters of British Columbia. It was time to
make a decision.
The answer was obvious when we woke the
next morning. Our world was shrouded in cotton
fluff, and the foghorn at Scarlett Point on
nearby Balaklava Island was wailing its displeasure.
We had nothing to prove, we said. We were
out for a good time and cruising blind along a
rocky ocean coast in the fog would be no fun.
Reluctantly, we made the decision. No circumnavigation
this time.
The wisdom of that decision became apparent
later that day as we took Quadra on a southeast
course across an unusually calm Queen Charlotte
Strait toward Wells Passage. Mid-day flashes
of sun gave way to a blanket of sagging clouds
and then a sky-filling rain storm that swept grayly
across Malcolm Island and the strait, leaving
us to navigate by compass and GPS through
Labouchere Passage.
Without radar we were nearly blind and only
a faint blob ahead hinted that the Numas Islands,
an important waypoint, were off the starboard
bow. To port were Lewis Rocks, a hazard to be
avoided. We had made that approach to Wells Passage several times before, however, and
found the entrance with only minor worries.
The Search Begins
Entertaining us on the way home were several
questions: How much? What kind? It was
obvious we wouldn’t be buying another Decca,
faithful and reliable as ours had been for many
years. Decca no longer builds radar for pleasure
boats. (The Decca we had was a honker; a price
tag of $6,000 in 1981, 10 kilowatts of power, a circular
screen 8.5 inches in diameter and a 36-inch
open-array antenna with a horizontal beam
width of less than three degrees. All the right
stuff for good radar; details later.)
I didn’t know much about radar then. I did
know it was invented in the early days of World
War II and that a chain of crude radar stations
around Great Britain had given the Royal Air
Force and its Spitfires and Hurricanes a vital edge
that helped the island nation to victory in the
Battle of Britain in the summer and fall of 1940.
I also knew that radar became available to the
recreational boating market in the early 1960s,
and that the early sets were big and klunky. Since
then, they have become smaller, lighter and
much more user-friendly.
What we needed to know, however, was what
to buy to replace our Decca. You might say that
we were in a fog about that, and, as we worked
our way out of it, we would learn about liquid
crystal versus cathode ray tube displays, about
open-array antennas and radomes, about pixels
and about all the OTHER things a radar set will
do today.
So we began talking to fishermen and
yachters. We checked antennas on boats we
passed in B.C. waters as we cruised south, and
on yachts and workboats in marinas along the
coast. Furuno, which frequently wins National
Marine Electronics Association awards for its
radar, seemed to be the clear radar of choice
along the Inside Passage.
When we returned home, I walked our dock
counting radars by make. There were twice as
many Furuno radars (20) as Raytheon (11). There was a scattering of other brands -- Goldstar, Sitex,
Vigil and Apelco and Autohelm (both made by
Raytheon). Informal, yes, but it was obvious that
Furuno dominates. Missing in the informal survey
were several vigorous newcomers in the
pleasure boat market, Simrad and JRC (Japanese
Radio Co.).
Roy Thompson, marketing manager for
Furuno in San Francisco, later would tell me that
electronics manufacturers do not disclose production
numbers. “But if you want to see who is
the leader, go to any marina,” he added, confidently.
It was a telephone interview, but I sensed
he was smiling.
In Blind Channel, B.C., a grizzled mariner (a
retired ferry boat captain and now skipper of an
oceanographic research vessel) told us he had
spent a winter checking specs and performance
of radars from several manufacturers. Making his
final cut were Furuno, Raytheon and Sitex. He
chose Furuno for his beautifully refurbished
1950s wood boat because he thought it was easier
to use. (He also advised us not to make the
circumnavigation of Vancouver Island, but not
because of a lack of radar. Rather, he said, the
ladies aboard would not enjoy the rough water
conditions. Perhaps he was trying to save Canada
for Canadians?)
After months of research, including talking
with owners, sellers, technical people, and, after
looking at as many operating radars as I could
find, I made my first judgment: The name brands
on the market all appeared good and a boater
probably wouldn’t go too far wrong with any of
them, although Raytheon does not always measure
up to the competition in delivering a sharp
picture to the screen.
The process of selecting a new radar then
becomes highly subjective, particularly for those
who are not electronics experts or technically
trained. One must make a personal judgment on
how a radar looks, feels and works. It is a personal
thing.
Do you prefer a track ball to manage the cursor
on the screen? Or a flat control pad? Do you
want a green or amber display? Do you want a lot of knobs and buttons for set control, or do
you prefer a computer-like menu instead? Do
images on one set look sharper than on a competitor?
How much do you want to spend? What
do your friends say?
Do you need to pick up headlands that are
miles away while coastal cruising? Or do you use
radar to avoid collisions while headed for your
favorite fishing grounds?
Electronics manufacturers produce dozens of
models of radars, with wildly varying prices.
For the first time ever, the price of a “baby”
radar (the JRC six-inch LCD and the seven-inch
Sitex T-150 LCD) dropped below $1,000 earlier
this year. As the price of these units plummeted,
the little radars were snapped up by owners of
small boats (18 to 20 feet) who had resisted the
market’s earlier, higher prices.
Both the low-powered radars should work
well for close-range collision avoidance, but
probably not for long-distance navigation. Some
technicians believe the JRC is easier of the two
radars to use.
At the high end, a trawler owner could dump
$15,000 into a new radar system, but he or she
might have trouble finding sufficient space for the
large display and antenna that would go with it.
A typical passagemaker can expect to spend
somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000 for a
radar with a CRT display and an antenna with
power and features needed for true navigation
and collision avoidance.
It’s hard to fix a budget, however, without first deciding how the radar will be used and how
many bells and whistles are important.
The Choices Are Many
The old Decca could do only one thing—convert
reflected radio signals into little green blips
signifying the presence of land, rocks, navigation
buoys or other boats. It did that well.
As we looked at contemporary radar systems,
we were impressed by their expanded functionality
and versatility.
Besides showing rocks and ships ahead, radar
systems today can be linked into a single-screen,
comprehensive electronics package combining
GPS navigation, chart plotting and the auto pilot.
The radar screen will display latitude-longitude,
wind speed and direction, water depth and temperature
and the vessel’s speed. It may also tell
you the course and speed of other boats shown
on the screen, and can warn if you are on a collision
course.
Contemporary radar needs help to do all this,
of course. You’ve got to buy and attach other
pricey electronic equipment—a GPS, various
sensors, depth sounders, electronic chart gadgets,
even gyro or fluxgate compasses. Radar can
become a black box festival with a large bill
attached.
Integrating electronics systems is convenient—
one screen tells all. However, it leaves the
navigator victim to the inherent weakness of integration:
if the CRT fails, all information is lost
(unless there are separate data monitors for each
element of the system). Not only will the skipper
be without radar, but chart plotting will go
down as well and, perhaps, depth information
and other useful data. Yikes! Hello, George Vancouver.
Retailers also report that experienced owners
of cruising boats tend to recognize that when
they need radar they also may need a chart plotter,
and that they can’t have both at
once on one screen. So they buy separate
units.
Focus On What’s Important
We were warned not to be dazzled
by this electronic gadgetry. Fishermen
and our grizzled mariner said they
were mostly interested in picture quality.
“The number one basic is the
picture,” one veteran technician said.
“The bells and whistles mean nothing.”
That became our focus. So, how best
to judge picture quality?
First, do not rely entirely on the simulated
scenes you will see in
showrooms.
Simulated images tend to make all
radar systems, but particularly the cheap ones,
appear better than they are. They don’t tell you
how a radar will work in a drenching rain or in
the fog, which can sap the energy from the radar
beam and reduce the quality and quantity of the
echoes produced on the monitor.
This is a good time to impose on friends. Visit
their boats and ask them to fire up their radars during a variety of weather conditions,
if possible. Would they buy that radar
again?
Look for electronics dealers that
have radars in operation.
Side-By-Side Comparison
Greg Gilbert, a photographer, and I
drove south on Interstate 5 to check
out Rodgers Marine Electronics in Portland,
Oregon, one of the few dealers
we know that actually displays operating
radars.
The show room is under the
approach to Portland International Airport
and overlooks the Columbia
River. At any given time, six or eight
operating radars are focused on the
Washington shore. Among the targets
on the opposite side is Christensen
Yachts, which has built more composite
yachts over 120 feet in length than
any other builder; in the summer of
1997 it launched Silver Lining, a 155-
foot composite megayacht. We could
see several of the big yachts on the
hard.
In Rodgers’ small display room in an
old concrete-block building, a mockup
of a ship’s helm looks out over the
marina and the river. There’s a big
spoked wheel, a compass and an
autopilot readout. Spread out along
the curving helm station is space for a
line of radar displays.
A few paces away is the window
wall and beyond that is a narrow deck across
the front of the building. Radar antennas line the
deck railing. In the distance is the river.
Pusher tugs and barges, carrying grain and other
products downstream on the Columbia,
provide good moving targets for the radar. As do
pleasure boats and the occasional float plane
swooping in for a river landing.
On one visit, the shop was running only two
Furuno radars because property repairs, needed
after severe rain and flooding in early 1997, temporarily
blocked part of the view. One was a
Furuno M841, a four-kilowatt unit with a liquid
crystal display (LCD); it has a 24-inch enclosed
antenna. The second radar was the Furuno 1751,
which produces four kilowatts of power and displays
its echoes on a cathode ray tube (CRT). It
operates with a 26-inch open-array antenna.
It was a valuable experience to see these units
side-by-side because it vividly showed the difference
between the two types of radars on the
market: LCD and CRT. I must admit a bias against
LCD radars because of poor contrast between the gray tone images and the pale background,
and because one must stand directly in front of
the screen to see it. To my eye, the crisp, green
or amber blips from traditional CRT units are easier
to read, and the value to the crew of being
able to see images on a screen from an angle is
immeasurable.
LCD radars are hard to see from a side angle
because they use a passive matrix screen, one
that has fewer pixels—the little glowing dots that
make up the picture. Many laptop computers are
now using active matrix displays with many more
pixels, that are brilliant and easy to read from any
angle. The difference is about $1,000 in extra cost
for the active matrix screen, which is why you
won’t find them in radar for pleasure boats.
The marine electronics industry is not a pace
setter. Improvements in LCD displays will be
driven by changes trickling down from the more
highly-competitive industries, such as the laptop
computer industry. The marine industry will then
have to “harden” the electronic circuits to take an
environmental beating, such as a 135-degree
swing in temperatures that may be found on a vessel cruising in Baja, California, one season
and the Bering Sea the next. While the competition
in the computer world will eventually bring
better displays and lower prices to recreational
boating, it isn’t there yet. Until then, the CRT is
the best bet for passagemakers.
In any case, LCDs have improved in the past
few years. Because the displays are thin (about
four inches deep, compared to about 12 inches
for CRTs) they are popular with owners of sailboats
and small powerboats that have little space
for electronics gear. Often, they can stand more
exposure to the weather than CRT units.
On our second visit to Rodgers in Portland,
eight radars were focusing electronic beams on
the Columbia River. In addition to the pair of
Furunos seen earlier, the display included a
Furuno 1932, a 10-inch CRT radar; the JRC 1000;
the Furuno 1621 Mark 2 , an LCD unit; the new
Raytheon Pathfinder SL72, also an LCD radar; the
Raytheon R10XX, a seven-inch CRT, and the
Raytheon R41XX, a ten-inch CRT display.
Our inspection of the various units seemed to
confirm what I had been hearing from other
sources—the Raytheon CRT just isn’t as sharp as
the competition.
Stretching out between the store and the river
is a large marina with many boat sheds. The
Raytheon R41XX portrayed the sheds as a large
smear. The R10XX tightened up the image, but
it still was a meaningless blob.
The Furuno radars, however, showed each
boat shed individually as well as a nun buoy
about a quarter mile out in the river and the
opposite shoreline.
Turning down the gain control on both
Raytheon units, to achieve better resolution on
the sheds, killed the echo from the nun buoy.
The Raytheon Pathfinder SL72, however, did
better. Although the overall image was small, it
clearly showed the boat sheds while also picking
up the echo from the nun buoy. The older
Raytheon RL9 LCD radar is also said to provide
a sharp image.
I spoke with Jim Hands, product support manager
for Raytheon Marine in Manchester, New
Hampshire, who admitted that Raytheon XX
radars have often needed more adjustment by
skilled technicians after installation than do competitor’s
radars. The problem usually is improper
factory setting of what is known as a “video comparator
level,” a system that controls the picture.
“We had a run that were like that,” he
acknowledged.
The fix requires opening the radar unit’s case,
which is work for an electronics technician, and
not the average user. “It takes a well-trained radar
guy,” Hands said.
Hands also told me that the problem has now been corrected on XX radars currently on the
market, and suggested that those I saw were older
models that had not received proper internal
adjustments. He feels a buyer today should find
that an XX radar is set up and ready to operate
“right out of the box.”
In any case, the problem will go away in the
next year or so, as Raytheon discontinues the XX
series—to be replaced by a line of new Pathfinder
radars, including larger LCD and CRT models.
Judging from the excellent image on the small
LCD Pathfinder I saw in Portland, that’s good
news for future radar buyers. The little radar
completely outclassed its 10XX and 40XX siblings
in image quality.
Raytheon will build the new Pathfinder radars
in its factory in England (property acquired when
it bought Autohelm), discontinuing the practice
of offering a line of Raytheon-labeled radars produced
by other companies.
Pathfinder should be worth the wait. So a
word of caution—if you buy a Raytheon XX
radar now, for reasons such as its SeaTalk system,
insist the dealer or Raytheon pay for any
required internal adjustments to bring it up to
snuff.
More advice: dig through manufacturers’ literature
to find the minimum effective range of a
radar. On the Furuno 1751, for example, it is 35
meters. On the Simrad radar, it’s 20 meters.
Raytheon literature shows minimum range only
for its new Pathfinder LCD series—33 meters.
The Rodgers’ product demonstration provides
a fine service to boaters living in the Portland
area. It is one of few retailers willing to go to the
bother and expense of setting up actual radar
installations to give true real-world results.
On a smaller scale, Pacific Yacht Services on
Lake Union in Seattle has operated a
Simrad/Anritsu 770 and a Raytheon R41XX sideby-
side.
Greg Jackson, a distributor for Simrad, drove
me there in a mini-van with a GPS antenna stuck
to the roof and a chart plotter operating inside.It was a little hairy, with Jackson driving along a
busy arterial punching commands into the plotter.
Finally, he handed it over and I watched the
track of our “voyage” around the north end of
the lake. Jackson said the GPS plotter works well
up to about 70 mph, when the wind will dislodge
the magnetically-attached antenna.
Arriving safely at Pacific Yacht Services, Jackson
spent several minutes adjusting the Raytheon
radar, but again, it could not “see” Lake Union as
well as the Simrad/Anritsu.
Details of the piers on the opposite shoreline,
which we could see by looking out the window,
were sharper on the Simrad.
At its north end, Lake Union narrows and
bends toward Portage Bay and Lake Washington.
The Raytheon did not clearly identify the
channel at the north end, while it was obvious
on the Simrad.
Earlier, another salesman had told me about a
“shoot out” between Raytheon and Furuno on a
45-foot yacht. As the boat pulled away from its
moorage, the Raytheon failed to pick up a row
of pilings along the channel. Every one of the pilings
produced an image on the Furuno, the
salesman said.
“During all of Raytheon’s history it has always
lagged behind others in picture resolution,” one
industry observer said.
This was kind of surprising, because several
people owning Raytheon radars told me they
liked the product. And not long ago I spent a
morning aboard a 41-foot Coast Guard motor
utility boat from Bellingham. It carried a large
Raytheon radar, which was in operation although
the day was clear and sunny. I was impressed
with the clarity and sharpness of the commercialsize
radar.
(Note that the Coast Guard crew had its radar
operating in conditions of unlimited visibility.
Boaters generally should follow the same rule:
Turn the radar on whenever under way. It helps
in normal navigation—ever try to spot a harbor
opening in a distant shoreline with the sun in
your eyes or through a purple haze in late afternoon?—
and in avoiding collisions. Regular use of
radar in good weather also makes a boater familiar
with tuning and reading the image, skills you
don’t have time to learn when the fog descends.)
More Power Is Good
Many radars sold for pleasure boat use will
“see” 36 or 48 miles, and that’s usually a sign of
a lot of power (often four kilowatts). But it doesn’t
mean a boater will be able to count trees on
a point of land 30 miles ahead.
The antenna generates radio pulses that are
broadcast in a straight line, like a VHF radio signal,
although certain atmospheric conditions will cause the signal to bend slightly to follow the
curvature of the earth. The radar will produce
echoes from targets between the boat and the
horizon but it won’t see anything beyond the
horizon unless its antenna is high and the target
tall.
For example, the horizon is barely five nautical
miles away if the radar antenna is 18 feet
above the water. At that height, the trawler’s
radar will see a target at 20 miles only if the target
is 150 feet tall. To see 36 miles, the antenna
on the trawler would need to be 1,000 feet above
the water. So, the effective working range on
inland waters is probably three to six miles. And
many boaters run with their radars set at 1.5 to
three miles.
The power that makes 36-mile or 48-mile radar
possible has other important benefits.
A radar transmitting with four kilowatts of
energy does a better job of pushing through
energy-robbing rain and fog than the 1.5 or 2 kW transmitter typically found on 16–24 mile
radars. Coupled with a good antenna, the more
powerful units produce stronger echoes from
close- and mid-range targets than less powerful
radars and will “see” canoes, kayaks and
other small craft that
might remain invisible
to other units. Maybe
even seagulls.
By identifying targets
earlier or clearer, the unit
with the greater power
will give the on-duty
crew more time in which
to make course changes,
if necessary, thus improving
safety of the ship
and reducing the anxiety
level on board while
cruising in fog or the
dark.
The antenna transmits
a pie-shaped radio signal.
The size of that piece
of pie—fat or skinny—
determines how well images appear on the CRT.
Most radar antennas are enclosed in a round
structure called a radome. The antenna turns
inside, protected from the weather and roosting
birds by the outer plastic shell. Others, called
open-array antennas, are not enclosed and usually
are found only on power boats big enough
to accommodate a turning device three or four
feet long.
Radar antennas rotate at 24 to 27 RPM. The
open-array antennas are built to operate and survive
winds of 80 to 100 knots.
Because it is longer, an open-array antenna
shoots out a skinnier piece of electronic pie than
an enclosed antenna and that means the radar
will “see” better.
The radar beam angle at the antenna can be
as small as two degrees on a four-foot-long
open-array unit or 1.2 degrees on a six-foot-long
open-array unit. The beam generated by an
antenna enclosed in a radome may be four or six
degrees wide, or even more, because the antenna
is shorter.
What difference does beam width make?
At a distance of one nautical mile from the
antenna, the radar signal from an antenna producing
a six-degree beam has spread out and is
628 feet wide. At two miles, the slice of pie is
1,256 feet wide. After five miles, it is 3,142 feet
wide.
To compare: a 2.2-degree beam from an openarray
antenna spreads to 230 feet at one mile, 460
feet at two miles and 1,150 feet at five miles. It
starts skinny, and stays skinny.
A tug and barge several miles away may
appear as one echo on the screen in a system
with a small radome antenna and its fat beam
width because the wide beam hits both the tug
and barge at the same time and returns a single
echo. A skinny beam from an open-array antenna
will return two echoes, one for the tug and a
second for the barge.
That phenomenon was obvious on a recent
cruise to test a new radar on Quadra. We were
running along a channel that shoaled quickly on
its north side A triangular day marker on a tall
piling showed the edge of the channel.
While we were about a mile west of the day
marker another boat was about a mile to the east.
Our radar, with a 3.9-degree enclosed radome
antenna, clearly displayed the marker and the
oncoming vessel. As the other boat drew abreast
of the marker, and was about 100 feet away from
it, the two echoes merged into one. After passing
the marker, the echo of the oncoming boat
reappeared.
The shape of a single, distant target also may
be distorted by a wide beam. The echo from a
nun buoy may look like a barge. Dialing in too
much gain may produce the same results.
Open-array antennas are larger and heavier
than radomes and require beefy motors and
gears. Waterproofing is more difficult. As a result,
they cost from $500 to $1,000 more, depending
on size and manufacturer, than a system using a
radome antenna.
For example: The popular Raytheon R10XX
has a 17.7-inch radome and a six-degree beam
radome antenna, and costs about $1,900. The
Raytheon R11XX is the same basic two-kilowatt
instrument, but with a 29.6-inch open-array
antenna producing a 3.3-degree beam and a
street price about $1,000 higher.
The vertical angle of the beam also is an
important spec. Open-array antennas generate
beams up to 25 to 30 degrees in height. Radomes
produce beams with a vertical angle of about 25
degrees.
“Short-range performance is greatly determined
by power, antenna length and quality of
receiver,” said Charles Worst, owner of a Seattle
marine electronics firm for nearly 20 years and
now an industry consultant. “When selecting
radar, do not make the selection based only on
maximum range. That would be a big mistake.
“Make the selection based on screen size,
antenna length and budget,” Worst said. “My recommendation
is to buy a radar with the largest
antenna practical for the boat. Bigger is better
and detection is better in any range.”
Worst recommends trawler owners buy nothing
smaller than a 24-inch antenna.
The Decca radar on Quadra had a 36-inch open array antenna with a horizontal beam width
of about three degrees. While that’s better than
the four-degree beam typically found on 24-inch
radome antennas, contemporary radars have better
internal electronic circuitry and the picture
they produce would be better than available on
the Decca, despite the difference in antenna quality,
said Marty Kirk, a marine electronics salesman
at Rodgers Marine in Portland since 1971.
Display Size
When the manufacturers of popular radars say
their displays are seven or ten inches in size they
are referring to a diagonal measurement across
the screen, from one corner to another.
That means a seven-inch CRT is about the
same size as a 4x6 snap shot from the corner
drug store. Can you imagine condensing 20 to 30
square miles of foggy sea into a rectangle the
size of a photograph of your kids?
Only a 10-inch monitor, which offers 40 percent
more viewing area than a seven-inch CRT,
was acceptable to us. (Even a so-called 10-inch
display is small compared to the Decca’s round
screen, which had about 28 percent more viewing
area than a contemporary 10-inch set. The
Decca’s drawback was that the CRT screen was
encased in a huge 16-inch-square box.)
At the recent Fish Expo in Seattle, electronics
firms displayed chart plotters-radars using 21-inch
screens. One unit had a split screen—the radar
was on one side and a chart view of the same
area was on the other. I didn’t dare ask the price.
One saleswoman suggested my disaffection
with a seven-inch display was due more to older
eyes than anything else. “Experienced”
cruisers tend to favor the larger screen, she said.
I would heed one of Worst’s recommendations:
Buy the largest display you can afford…a
10-inch CRT.
Trouble is, there are few 10-inch displays on
the market that fit a budget of about $3,000.
The Furuno 1831 (since relabeled 1832) has a
10-inch monitor, as do the Simrad 770 series, the
Raytheon 40XX line of radars and JRC’s JMA-2253
and JMA 2254.
Furuno and Raytheon, of course, have been
familiar names to pleasure boaters and work
boat owners for many years. Simrad, which
probably is not as well known in the recreational
field, builds an array of radars, sounders and
commercial electronics systems, including
sophisticated fish finders the firm says can detect
a single fish at a depth of 1,000 meters. It also
markets the Robertson autopilot and data displays
and Shipmate VHF radios.
Expect to pay significantly more for a 10-inch
CRT. Almost $1,000 more.
“Street price” for a Raytheon 20XX, with its seven-inch display, is about $2,600. The 10-inch
Raytheon 40XX radar is about $3,560. The Furuno
1731 (a seven-inch model) is discounted at about
$2,700, while the 10-inch 1831 is offered at $3,550
to $4,000. The Simrad 770 ranges between $3,200
and $3,600, although vigorous discounting and a
manufacturer’s rebate have pulled the price down
to about $2,900 in some areas.
They all come with 24-inch radome antennas.
To get a super radar package, add an open-array
antenna with a smaller beam angle to the 10-inch
display. The price bumps up again. Furuno’s
1932, with a large open-array antenna and a teninch
CRT, is about $5,500. That would be a keen
piece of electronics for a serious passagemaker.
We Make Our Choice
Making a clear choice is difficult. There are
scores of radars on the market, each with a different
package of features. Think carefully about
how it will be used and identify the operating
characteristics that will do what you need.
Dealers won’t like this advice: Shop hard.
Prices vary significantly from dealer to dealer and
savings will reward those who inquire.
I collected prices from five electronics firms.
One was a national marine supply chain, while
the others were local or regional electronics dealers.
Some offer mail-order or Internet shopping.
Prices will vary over time and across the country,
but the careful boat owner will be able to
save hundreds of dollars by looking around and
asking dealers for their best prices.
No radar is bullet proof, making easy and convenient
service important. Where will you go for
repairs? Can you get it fixed out in the nautical
equivalent of the boonies?
Finally, I decided my “ideal”
radar should have a
10-inch display, at least a
24-inch antenna and the
backing of a major name in
the electronics industry. My
search narrowed to the
Furuno 1831 and the Simrad
770UA.
Bidding on the Furuno
was close, with three firms
quoting prices within a few
dollars of $3,500. I received
two bids on the Simrad—
$3,220 and $3,475. Enhancing the slight Simrad
price advantage was a manufacturer’s rebate of
$350 on the 770 model, a deal offered to speed
the company’s move into the recreational boating
market.
The rebate put the cost of the Simrad at $2,870,
or $630 cheaper than the lowest-priced competitive
Furuno. And that made Simrad my choice.
The money not spent on radar would buy a
new refrigerator for the galley, or a new set of
lines and fenders, or the next coat of bottom
paint.
Some say Simrad is a generation behind
Furuno electronically. The criticism is based on
the fact that a Simrad monitor cannot also be
used as a chart plotter, while Furuno, Raytheon,
Autohelm, Sitex and others offer that as one of
their bells and whistles.
That argument doesn’t mean much to me. If
Quadra ever gets a chart plotting system, and
it’s currently near the bottom of the boat’s wish
list, it will be CD-based, with a real chart digitally
displayed in full color on a PC screen. Also,
there’s the continuing concern about the fallibility
of integrated circuits—is it best to have a
plotter and a radar share a CRT?
The Grand Banks 42 has space for both a radar
display and a chart plotter. Many boats don’t,
however, and for their owners one of the dualservice
units may be better.
Installation
Radars are not technically difficult to install,
particularly if you are replacing an old system.
But it still may be a trying experience.
Technicians will install the radar, but it seems
silly to pay an expert $65 an hour for grunt work.
On Quadra, several long pieces of teak window
valance had to be removed and a section
of the saloon’s fabric headliner dropped to
expose the bundle of four Decca cables, which
had been tied to other GB-installed wiring. I
left one of the Decca wires in place, to use it
to pull the 30-foot Simrad single cable from the
display unit at the lower helm along the overhead
and up through the hollow core of the
radar mast.
Because Grand Banks did not install a cable
chase overhead in my boat, it was not just a simple
pull. The Simrad wiring had to be helped
around complex curves and obstructions at both
ends of its run.
At one point I was lying on my side, ahead of
the upper helm station, trapped between the legs
of the framework supporting the steering gear. A
bundle of wiring runs to the upper station
through a four-inch tube.
Simultaneously, I had to peer with one eye
into the tube and reach one hand down through
it to grope with two fingers for the radar cable
and, with a feeble grasp, direct it onto the proper
course. It was semi-dark, I’m nearsighted and
I had a cramp in my leg.
I can’t imagine how the Decca installers ever
maneuvered a bundle of four wires through
that area.
The second major task was modifying the Decca
platform on the radar mast to accept the
mounting bolt pattern of the new radar.
Some people recommend hiring a technician
for an hour or two to check out the installation,
to connect the cable at both ends and to tune
the radar.
With the Simrad, you cannot plug the cable
ends in the wrong places. One round plug clearly
goes in the CRT, and, at the other end, two
rectangular pin connectors can only fit inside the
antenna body. Hardly worth paying a shop for
two hours for that simple task.
The New System In Operation
Today, surprisingly, the sun is blazing from its
southern tilt and spreading a blinding sheen
across the rippled surface of Elliott Bay. A perfect
day for plugging in a new radar.
With the antenna bolted to the radar mast, the
cable snugly in place and a new 12VDC power
circuit connected, it is ready. I push the power
switch on the Simrad and am nearly overwhelmed
with relief when it flashes to life.
“Radar Off” says a message on the screen. A digital
clock begins clicking off the seconds.
When the two-minute start-up cycle is complete
it’s time to push the transmit button.
Instantly, there before my eyes, is Elliott Bay in
amber lines and bunch of blips that must be
boats. I run to the bridge for a visual check and,
sure enough, there’s a ferry, a small freighter,
two sailboats passing the marina breakwater and,
half a mile astern, a huge container ship at
anchor. It works!
The marina at which Quadra is moored has no
boat sheds to double as radar targets. However,
the Simrad signal easily defines each floating
dock in the moorage and the rock breakwater
around us.
I push a button labeled “auto” and the image
becomes cleaner and the echoes sharpen. A
technician is available to help tune and adjust
the new radar, but so far I see no need for such
expensive services. New electronic circuitry
seems to do the job well. Anyone who can program
a VCR probably can hook up a radar.
The Simrad instruction manual, although it suffers
from the awkward language often
accompanying electronics products from Japan,
capably guides operators through tune-up procedures.
Following years of gazing at the large, round
Decca display, the 10-inch Simrad CRT looks
slightly small. It’s good for my “experienced”
eyes that I didn’t buy a seven-inch display!
After watching for half an hour and feeling an
exaggerated sense of accomplishment, I dig in a
drawer for my boat maintenance log. After the
date, I scrawl: “Installed new radar.”
Reprinted with permission. Copyright 1998 © Dominion Enterprises (888.487.2953) www.passagemaker.com
You are reading the text-only copy of this article. To access the article as it appeared in PassageMaker Magazine, please log in to purchase and download the PDF version of this article.