Birds / Radar Array

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kgd

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In my constant battle with Seagulls I was considering how to keep them off the radar. I have a 4 foot Raymarine Open Array Radar Scanner. I was considering attaching some bird spikes to the top of the Array to keep birds from landing on it and crapping on the top. I am not an engineer so my thinking my very well be flawed but it would seem the top of the array would not be impacted by this as the signal is going out horizontally for the most part. The bird spikes are generally stainless so I am not sure if that would cause problems. I could use a couple of zip ties on each side to keep the spikes secured. This would also allow them to be easily removed if needed.

Is this a bad idea that would impact reliability of the radar readings?

Thanks

Kris
 
How about a rubber Owl near the Radar? I'm pretty sure the spikes not would affect the Radars operation if on top of the radome you should be fine. I would be more worried about the spikes coming off when the Radar is rotated. The beamwidth of radar is forward so I doubt the non-resonant spikes would hurt the Radar's operation and it wouldn't damage it. You might want to think about some fotm of either fiberglass spikes or plastic then you wouldn't have any potential issues I can think of.
Bill
 
So that my opinion will have a little credibility here's what I have been doing for the past couple of decades:
Project pilot for many different airborne radar systems including the most advanced radar in the world aboard the F-35
And for a couple of years prior to that I taught radar theory and flight test techniques at a military test pilot school.

Bird spikes on the top of an open array antenna will have no effect on performance.

Mike
 
quote:
Originally posted by meide

So that my opinion will have a little credibility here's what I have been doing for the past couple of decades:
Project pilot for many different airborne radar systems including the most advanced radar in the world aboard the F-35
And for a couple of years prior to that I taught radar theory and flight test techniques at a military test pilot school.

Bird spikes on the top of an open array antenna will have no effect on performance.

Mike

Click to expand...


Thanks for the repy, your experience is a bit better than mine. I will give it a try. Not to worried about them falling off while the array is rotating. Hopefully this is the last step in keeping those seagulls off the boat.

Kris
 
Mike, how about something akin to an electric fence. Every 10 seconds or so it zaps or anytime some weight settles on a sensor, it zaps.
 
Thud I would be worried about an EMP pulse traveling via common mode and possibly damaging the mechanical control or the display of the Radar. The same pulse or discharge from generating a high voltage spike would be like generating lightning to the vessels electronics because it would get into the common 12VDC of the vessel.
Bill
 
I had this problem once when grackles were migrating through when we were in Savannah. I turned the radar on for a few minutes a couple of times and they never came close to my boat again.
 
Configure a trianglular shaped object to place on top and the length of the array. Looking at it as viewed from the ends of the array like this,
Triangle.jpg


Birds won't land or perch on this edge. I've seen this work in different sizes for other applications on other boats. You can easily form it out of a plastic sheet and secure it to the array. And it won't affect the radar's operation.
 
The triangle works
We use this in commercial buildings
The birds cann't roost on the angle it is too steep for them to get comfortable.
Next time you go by a new underpass look at how the beams are cast.
All the new ones have angles.
 
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