A Not-too-expensive radar detector for solo sailor....

Sy-Revolution said:
Any suggestions ?
Cheers,
C.
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My boat came with a CARD (Collision Avoidance Radar Detector). It's a fairly neat idea: you have four directional antennae inside a mushroom shaped housing on the stern pulpit and a box which sounds an alarm when it receives a radar signal - the threshhold is variable - and tells you in roughly what direction it is by indicating on four radiating LED bar graphs the signal strengths received.

The only problem is that it doesn't work, or at least I couldn't get it to worry about the Rothesay ferry when she was a hundred yards away with at least two radar thingies spinning round. If it's just mine that's ropey, it might be a good solution.
 
Jumbleduck,

I fancied a CARD, but the general opinion seemed to be they all had results like yours; they've been out of business for quite a while now I think.

Shame, as the idea - a Radar Warning Receiver like military aircraft - has a lot of appeal.

I suppose the answer now is a power economical radar like a Vigil combined with AIS; I have just bought a tablet with the aim of accessing the local real time weather reports ( Chimet etc ) and don't see why I shouldn't use the

free AIS website www.marinetraffic.com

- the info can be a few minutes old but still a godsend I and others would have sold our soul for not long ago when crossing the Channel in bad vis...
 
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MoodySabre,

yes I'm aware of that and reckon it worth a try; I'll be lucky to get across the Channel again this season for a start, used to zot across all the time but for one reason or another haven't for a while now.
 
Thanks for the replies folks,
I should have mentioned that I have a Raymarine C120 with radar and NASA AIS fitted already. However the AIS will only warn at 5 miles (bit late methinks) and the C120s alarm is woefully quiet, would never wake me from a doze. Plus running the plotter/radar all night is going to be power hungry etc. Wanted a little gizmo that'd wake me with a loud screech + low power draw......

The French things look like the ticket but at the price a Sea-me might be a better option, making me look BIG?!

Cheers,

C.
 
Sy-Revolution said:
Thanks for the replies folks,
I should have mentioned that I have a Raymarine C120 with radar and NASA AIS fitted already. However the AIS will only warn at 5 miles (bit late methinks) and the C120s alarm is woefully quiet, would never wake me from a doze. Plus running the plotter/radar all night is going to be power hungry etc. Wanted a little gizmo that'd wake me with a loud screech + low power draw......

The French things look like the ticket but at the price a Sea-me might be a better option, making me look BIG?!

Cheers,

C.
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Atlantic I used the nasa set at 5 miles, plenty time I found, as the ships would make course changes long before they get near you anyway. Downside of the nasa is that your awake until whatever it is leaves the 5 mile zone. I fitted a little external alarm on a sl72 radar as the internal alarm is too quiet, from Australia I think. Personally I would put having a good radar return as very high up the list, often ships would do collision avoidance well before they appear over the horizon as they'd pick up my steel boat from a long way off. Well offshore I haven't come across anything which wasn't transmitting AIS.
 
If you want "cheap", car radar detectors which will cover x-band (but not s) start around £25. No idea of their efficacy at sea but someone must have tried.#

Edit:Forget that idea. Marine X-band is ~9GHz while police x-band is ~10.5GHz.
 
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Seajet said:
I fancied a CARD, but the general opinion seemed to be they all had results like yours; they've been out of business for quite a while now I think.
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They still have a web presence of a sort at http://www.survivalsafety.com/ but there doesn't seem to be anyone selling them. Ah well, I think I'll take mine out and declutter the boat a bit more. Shame, because it's a nice idea.
 
I just Googled and got http://www.safetyatsea.com.au/aust/card.asp (ie in Aus - suits me . . .). At Au$1,200 I won't be rushing to get one, nor at Euro300+ (at $120 I would).
Hasn't AIS largely overtaken the need (it is not just the >300 T that have them around here) - I suggest that people at sea are now more likely to invest in AIS before radar).
Someone mentioned NASA AIS and a 5 Nm range - is that deliberate? Mine is getting 25+ Nm range (I can reduce it if I wish). A few weeks ago I sailed 250 Nm Lakes Entrance to Melbourne - the family watched me on Marine traffic all the way and were ringing to warn of ships (which we'd seen). Cheers Andrew
 
This isn't a cheap solution but it is a neat one. The Sea-Me, an active radar transponder, not only gives your vessel a far better chance of being acquired by big-ship radar systems, but also produces a red flash on the switch unit whenever it responds to someone else's radar. I've found this feature (presumably included so that you know that the thing is working) very helpful in offshore and ocean sailing, as it provides an early warning of a ship in your bit of the ocean and encourages the watch-keeper to keep a sharp lookout.
 
MoodySabre said:
Seajet - can you keep a phone signal all the way across the channel? AIS from Marinetraffic and Boat Beacon require a phone signal to download off the net.
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Mobile phones are microwave transmissions and not to be recievable beyond line of sight (they need a 2 way transmission even for data and your phone aerial is the limiting factor), although as residents of Kent will testify, very occassional 20+ mile reception is possible. We have never got a signal out of sight of land, usually much closer (sometimes not until we are at the Needles fairway bouy!), even with the old super sensitive Nokia bricks, never mind the new smartphones. Anyone relying on marinetraffic.com for AIS data on a channel crossing is going to be very dissapointed.
 
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You are misunderstanding me, possibly deliberately; yes I am aware of the limitation, and I think using Marinetraffic.com worth a try - as I then point out I am not planning to go cross Channel again this season.
 
Hang on guys. Marine traffic only allows those on the web to see AIS traffic. At sea it is each vessel's transponder that allows equipped vessels to see each other at say 25Nm range anywhere, and well out of range of land. AIS has nothing to do with mobile phone. Marine traffic has receivers, similar to those on board, spaced around the coast to receive and forward to www nearby AIS targets. AIS has an advantage over radar in that you know each vessel' name, call sign etc - but only if they are equipped with an AIS transmitter. All ships >300 T are meant to be. My contention is that increasing numbers of smaller vessels are too. Of course AIS tells you nothing about other hazards etc. Andrew
 
Seajet said:
You are misunderstanding me, possibly deliberately; yes I am aware of the limitation, and I think using Marinetraffic.com worth a try - as I then point out I am not planning to go cross Channel again this season.
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I've played around with both live and Web based on the same screen, I suspect in busy areas with the delay using the Web might actually be worse than not having anything, you don't have any CPA or tcpa and have to work out from the delay where you think the ship might be. Could be handy in more sparse traffic areas or for watching for port traffic but anything serious it might be worse than nothing.
 
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