3G Radar & Standard Horizon

[Lundylad]

I am looking to install radar on the boat and was looking at Sitex and Siewa radomes but SH understandably dont support them although in the US they do and actualy provide an interfacing manual for the Sitex range.
I spoke to two suppliers about interfacing them with my SH CP300 the first said of the two he would recomend Siewa and I then had a lenghty conversation with another to which one he would recomend.

He also said Siewa but had no experience of them with the SH range of plotters but knew the first guy I had spoken to and trusted his views.

So do I spend a reasonable amount on a system that is not fully supported and may not give me the same quality I would get with a matched Radar and plotter.

If I need to buy a complete radar package then broadband may be the answer.

Any experiences, advice or thoughts with any of the above would be very helpfull.

 

[pvb]

Ask John at JG Tech - he sells both Sitex and Seiwa scanners and knows exactly what he's talking about. http://www.jgtech.com/index.htm

 

[FullCircle]

I went through this loop earlier in the year. SH are not great with Radar, even the CP500 or the latest (not available in UK).
Eventually I went for a Raymarine package, but buying the C90W which I knew to be discontinued from the catalogue this year (it does everything I want). I plumped for the HD 256 colour Radar, and it is fab, although a pricey 600 quid more..

I had a JRC1800 Chartplotter/Radar before which worked well, but was dog slow on refresh, and ancient blocky graphics display.

Deals are to be had for bundles - look at cactusnav.

I would also be conceerned about the size of CP screen, bit small for proper viewing. Sell your CP300 on ebay, it will fetch a reasonable price.

 

[Lundylad]

Thanks PRV, it was John that was the first person I contacted and will do so again, the other chap I spoke to was very helpfull and could easily have tried to sell me something but told me to speak to John as he knew his stuff.
As for selling the CP300 that may be an option, the only thing is apart from AIS the plotter, fixed VHF,handheld dsc and vhf relay they are all fairly new and was wanting a radar that would interface without much change.

 

[Leighb]

Sitex radars DO work OK with SH plotters, I know because I have one.

They, I am sure, do not compare with the modern 3G etc. digital systems, but you do not have to replace all your kit as you would if you fit Simrad or Raymarine.

I bought all my kite from Marine Electronic Services, it is possible they no longer sell the Sitex radars I suppose?

 

[Neeves]

Our Pathfinder went down about 18 months ago. Whatever we bought was going to be incompatible.

We went for 3G with Simrad's NSS. If we were doing is now we would go with 3 or 4G and B&Gs Zeus. The sailing software on the Zeus is very good - do not understand why they will not allow a download for the NSS (but maybe they do - have not checked recently). The price difference between Zeus and NSS was not significant.

We have now also committed ourselves to Simrad or B&G wind and autopilot should we need to upgrade - so think of what else you might want to add to your new system in the future as this might influence your choice.

3 and 4G, we have extensively tested the 4G and use the 3G regularly, are pretty useless beyond about 15nm, 4G has a bit longer range but only a few miles. Neither of them are much use for coastal navigation at much over 10nm and if the coastline is low you can see the coast but the radar will simply not pick it up. But at short range the clarity is amazing and at 10m brilliant (we can see our bowsprit). Power usage is low (about 2/3 of the Raymarine system) and power usage on standby is so low you can leave it on standby all the time. There is no warm up so when you want to go from stand-by to power it is instantaneous.

For a yacht making, at best 10kn, the range restriction is really not an issue (though it would be if you were moving a lot faster). The lower power usage when on is not much different but in standby is excellent and the instant on, great. The short range clarity is really good - in thick fog you could enter a marina and berth using the radar alone. Wiring is easy - you could train a monkey.

Jonathan