electronic chartplotter/radar

anybody using the either the simrad nse/broadband set up or garmin 18hd radar. if so, feedback would be appreciated.

thank you in advance for taking the time to reply.

Hi Jo Anne,
I’m using the Garmin 18 but not hd version and have been satisfied. I am not a big user of radar yet, so have little to compare it to. I like it’s overlay on the chart ploter, it was easy to install. Good luck with your decision,
Jonathan

Hi Jo Anne -

I am using the Navico Broadband radar. I am very pleased with it for short-range usage. I don’t have long-range experience with it yet. I am using it with a Lowrance HDS chartplotter. I haven’t seen a Simrad NSE yet. The Simrad chartplotter does MARPA and guard zones with the scanner; the Lowrance chartplotter does not. You do need a heading sensor to overlay the radar on the chart. You can e-mail me direct if you want: norris.weimer@ualberta.ca

  • Norris

i was discussing the comparision of garmin hd with broadband with a garmin rep. while he conceded that the up close broadband picture is terrific - he said you can’t see more than 3 miles. do you find that is the case?

I have a Furuno unit, which I am moderately pleased with (I have a Raymarine on my powerboat, which I find much more user friendly than the Furuno). Anyways, I am not sure what “broadband” is (will have to research it), but on my sailboat, given its speed, I rarely use a range greater than 3 miles. I find that at that range or less, I can see much more detail than on a greater range, and given the sailboat’s speed (grant it, other boats could be traveling much faster) it is my preferred range setting.

Gary
Dioscouri (#064)

gary,

for bluewater use i’m looking well past 3 miles to pick up other ships. i get real interested in anything that is going to pass with a couple of miles of me.

the broadband low power draw and clarity for close quarters is very attractive. i just bought a watchmate rx for collision avoidance- so if it works as advertised my focus on radar as a collision avoidance tool i suppose will change. i would like to see weather and am wondering if that “only 3 mile comment” of the garmin rep about broadband was accurate or just the run of the mill “dissing” of a competitive product.

Collision Avoidance Radar Detector (C.A.R.D.)

The C.A.R.D. is a passive radar detector that “burns” 45 milliapms per hour. We had a unit on African Moon and it worked very well. The unit alerts you when your vessel is swept by radar. The simple light display indicates the general heading and course of the source but does not provide range information. Both AIS and C.A.R.D. require that the ship’s radar is ON. Cost is $635.

http://www.survivalsafety.com/

for bluewater use i’m looking well past 3 miles to
pick up other ships. i get real interested in
anything that is going to pass with a couple of
miles of me.

AIS is the best way to see the big ships and they are
required to have it. The Watchmate RX should be a
very good low power solution for this.

the broadband low power draw and clarity for close
quarters is very attractive.

For those who don’t know, broadband radar does not
use a magnetron (one of the very few remaining vacuum tubes)
and it does not use pulse technology. It is all solid state.

would like to see weather and am wondering if that
“only 3 mile comment” of the garmin rep about
broadband was accurate or just the run of the mill
“dissing” of a competitive product.

I don’t know about seeing weather on radar. There’s a
conflicting goal here. Do you want to see it or see
through it?

The comment about not being good at long range is floating
around, but this is not an easy question. The broadband
radar should be more or less equivalent to an 18" 2 kW pulse
radar, since these are claimed to be “24 mile” radars.
In some other ideal world – what can any “24 mile” radar
see at 24 miles?

The radar range you get depends on a number (too many) of
other things, like height of the radar and size, height,
and reflectivity of the target. If you look at how far
away the radar horizon is for a radar mounted on a sailboat,
you see that beyond about 5 miles you are only going to
see the top part of the hull of the target. Beyond 5 miles
you’re really mostly concerned with ships which have AIS
anyway, and AIS will give you a definite answer (for boats
using it).

If you mount the radar higher to see farther, then the
very close objects may be literally under the radar.

- Norris