radar suggestions

M

mx8

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Nov 28, 2006
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I uncovered the boat yesterday to have it ready for canvas guy and saw the raytheon dome destoyed from the snow load wind combo. Being from the "old yankee/farmer" mentality that doesn`t allow me to purchase anything until the old one is broke I`ve decided this would be a legit excuse to upgrade the radar and my separate gps to a new integrated unit. The equipment is what came on the boat,1998 vintage. Whats the latest greatest, I`m not a great techie so the more intuitive, the better., Thaks
 
Have you considered the "new" broadband" radar? I have not seen one in use, but promo material leads me to believe that it would be best IF your need was for shorter ranges ie: 50 ft to about 3 miles.

That said, I am not up on the current systems being offered...
 
I upgraded to a Garmin 741xs chartplotter and Garmin GMR 18HD last season and have been very impressed. It is incredibly nice to have the radar returns on the chartplotter. The two can be found bundled together at some retailers. The 741xs supports screen captures, so if you need to see it in action let me know and I'll post some the next time I'm at the boat.
 
I'm with Kurt Garmin makes a great recreational boat product line. It is simple to use feature packed and inexpensive. My setup is already a few years old and I have now issues with it. I have two 4208 series units they network together and ties in my depth sounder and VHF everything works together to provide a great system. I would like to add a Garmin Auto Pilot but I just don't want to spend that much money at this time.
 
Yup...Garmin all the way! ...and with the new Garmin Homeport feature you can do everything at home for planning, and just load in when you arrive at the boat. xHD18 radar for sure!
 
I'm also a Garmin fan. If you have the autopilot as well, it will do an course automatically. This past fall. I got out of the Milwaukee Harbor, picked a point inside the Chicago harbor, and it took me right there, thru the gap and everything. We came back last spring from Ohio in allot of fog, it actually picked out a sheet of ice about 20' in diameter. I was doubting the system until I actually saw it.
 
I am a big fan of the Garman plotters but always want a separate radar display. When in the soup I don't want to push the wrong button an loose both also having large displays for each gives better detail.
 
Same here, I like my radar and GPS on separate displays,

Furuno has always been the gold standard for radar. There is one feature I can not be without is trails. It shows you where an echo came from and the length of the trail gives you an idea of the speed of the target. No idea which one has it which one doesn't but a lot more useful than anything else
 
Bruce and Pascal have a good point with the redundancy thing. I run two Garmin chartplotters on my 30' powercat and have two to install on my 36' trawler (same units). Tracking is available if enabled on the Garmin units I have. I usually keep it at just a few minutes so I can determine direction of the vessels I paint.
 
Tracking is a nice feature but you need a heading sensor to use it. I tied in my auto pilot so it works on mine but I have an old AP and would like to update it to take advantage of the new features and technology such as shadow drive.

I also have two units so if one fails I can switch to the other I like using overlay on one screen and a full radar screen on the other best of both worlds!
 
I have a Simrad Broadband system with two units plus a stand alone GPS for multiple backup. I just purchased the StructureScan this winter and will be installing that shortly. I like the instant on, low emissions, low power draw. This is my second BB unit, I had a Lawrence on my last boat. I can do overlay of the sonar onto my chart as well as the radar. As to the distance requirement, remember, the earth is a sphere, so the actual range of any radar is dependent upon this (1.22 nautical miles x square root of height of radar) + (1.22 nautical miles x square root height of target). If you are looking for birds at 20 miles, conventional radar is best.
 
My Furuno radar dome was cracked from shrink cover. I fiberglassed it from inside. Can't tell it was ever damaged.
 
Another plus for furuno. After about ten years the keys became erratic. I sent the set to Furuno and they replaced the circuit board, key pad and trak ball and upgraded the software all for $500.
I consider that great customer support on a ten year old product.
 
While I like Furuno, the new Garmin gear is near perfect for my taste in electronics.

The HD radar is top notch and very easy to operate.
 
Switched from HD open array to Broadband 5 years ago, since upgraded to latest version (5G as i recall) on my 46. Would never go back. Instant on, low emissions, no blind area near (around) boat, amazing resolution and detail. All other attributes of magnetron radar - overlay, etc. Only possible downside I'm aware of is sl less range - might matter only to far offshore fisherman who use radar image of circling birds to find fish. As Bayrat points out, range of surface radar is limited by earth's curvature to much less than advertised. Check it out . . .
John
 
quote:
Originally posted by mx8

Click to expand...


best idea is find a local boat show and go see the big 3 to compare features on them all in one place. Its also helpful to get some measurements from your bridge to see what will fit as you size these up. unfortunately as the technology has evolved, any component upgrade is likely to lead you to changing all of the electronics so they can talk to each other, unless you have already made the move to NMEA 2000.
 
Thanks for the replies, I`ll be checking out the Garmin as I feel ease of use is important, both the Chartplotter and radar are original (1998) on the boat so I have no problem upgrading all. The antenna is destroyed, dome, base, innards, all of it schmooshed.
 
I gave Kurt my Maretron (Garmin compatible) heading sensor for the 36 trawlers NMEA2000 heading sensor. I loved the Garmin HD units as well guys. I did have problems with the early release GMR24HD, finally swapped it for a GMR18HD and never had another issue. The guy that bought the 3rd GMR24HD loves it and he's still using it. Garmin did stand behind the product, but it was a PIA shipping the unit back and forth.
Bill
 
Garmin has the 741xs plotter and GMR18 HD radar together in a bundle. Retail appears to be around $2000.
 
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