Another RADAR question

[Jools_of_Top_Cat]

I am looking at the Ratheon SL72 and hope to strike a good deal in London.

Does anyone have an opinion on this unit, can I connect a GPS to give positional data.

I am still open to suggestion on which RADAR, low power is important as is reliability. this with the mast mount is going to cost about £1300. This is right at the top of my budget, so any suggestions you would care to share should hopefully be lower, and that means the whole package.

Thank you in advance.

<hr width=100% size=1>Julian

 

[david]

Showing Nav Data

I've got a Raytheon RL72 RC radar/plotter with it plugged into NMEA and or seatalk you can show any Nav Data you wish on the screen, personally I dont over do it, I just show Long/Lat and Heading

<hr width=100% size=1>David

 

[vyv_cox]

My SL72C interfaces with GPS very well, shows the next waypoint on the radar screen. Overall I am very impressed with the unit and with Raytheon's assistance by phone and e-mail in getting it installed.

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[Talbot]

If power and cost are a vital component of your purchase, Look at the JRC range http://www.cactusnav.com/specials.htm - their 1000 has a very small aerial 12" thus a beam width of 7 degrees. However it has a very low power output and is well priced. Their 1500 is perhaps a better bet with an 18" aerial and thus a 5.2 degree beamwidth and slightly more power (2Kw). I have never heard anything bad about these radars.

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[roni]

I own jrc 1000 radar. it is waste of money you can get it almost free.
Some times the radar is blind when passing 100.000 ton tanker 2 miles away. Do not try service they not helpfull.
roni

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[StephenW]

Have a JRC 1500 and have found it to work well, also has a much tighter beam width (and larger scanner) than the 1000.

No problems with missed targets and very simple/intuitive to operate

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[ashanta]

I also have JRC 1500 and find it excellent.

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[steverow]

I bought mine last May and am very pleased with it.
I installed it and aligned it myself without too many problems.
I feed it NMEA info from the GPS,sounder and Laptop and it displays info in windows as well as the radar plot.
If you just want a radar, ie. you have a separate plotter, then it's ideal. Screen is pretty bright for an LCD as well.
Its a lot better than the R10XX that I inherited with the boat.

Steve.

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[billmacfarlane]

I use the SL72C and have had 2 seasons of trouble free use out of it. It's connected to a Furuno GP31 GPS which again has been trouble free. It'salso been my first radar set and I've used it in anger more than once this season and it's been great.

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[johnsomerhausen]

Re: Showing Nav Data

If you've got budget constraints for the purchase of the radar, you might also have them for its trouble shooting by a technician. In that case, mountingthe scanner on a post at the stern makes it easy for you to take the scanner off to bring it, along with the display and the cable, to a service shop, which is a damn sight cheaper than having a technician come and climb up the mast....Besides, you won't affect the stability as much and you get less sea clutter. The loss of range is minimal.
john

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[LadyInBed]

My JRC1000 works very well for me. You do need to twiddle the S/R/G depending on what Range you are on.
Practice makes perfect/forums/images/icons/wink.gif

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[brians]

Have you looked at the Furuno 1623. Now cheaper than JRC 1500 at around £920. Furuno are well regarded.

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[Jools_of_Top_Cat]

Re: Showing Nav Data

Thank you all so far for the advice. Budget is important, like I said £1300 will be top for me, I do not necessarily want cheap, I would rather go to top of budget for the right set.

I am not to interested in having an internal GPS and plotter, I already have that, would rather keep them seperate, but I like the idea of placing lollipop over target and reading off position to then transcribe to chart, another nice positional backup I thinks.

As for future servicing, well I am an electronics (avionics) engineer, and through no fault of my own have specialised in RADAR, though repairing them is a whole different ball game to selecting one that is right for us, i.e. we both have to be able to use it, so it should also do what it says on the tin without having to scroll through 100 button sequences. The JRC does appear a little like this; that is short on quick select functionality, correct me if I am wrong.

Will have a look at the furuno tomorrow, but the NTL DNS server has gone up the spout and it can't work out addresses properly, I got here as it is in my cache.

I still have not heard anything bad about the raymarine, so it is still looking top dog, for every good review about JRC there seems to be a bad one, this radar has to last me and survive up the mast, so I want to get it right.

<hr width=100% size=1>Julian

 

[BrendanS]

Re: Showing Nav Data

A bit difficult keeping people on track of original question at times

<hr width=100% size=1>Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo

 

[Jools_of_Top_Cat]

Furuno does look interesting

Like the reverse screen for night use etc.

I can't find whether it has a low power watch, this is where it will turn on and do a single sweep every 2 mins or so, alerting if something has entered your guard zone. Do all radar sets in this catergory have this function as a given, or is it just a select few?

sorry for all the questions, be glad I am not in the sailing club with you all, I would be hopping fron boat to boat playing with your radars /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

Oh yes, another question, please be patient with me. How loud are the alarms, the radar will be in the saloon where we sleep in the aft cabin, can you fit external speakers to these units?

God I am starting to feel like someone on the MBM board lol

<hr width=100% size=1>Julian

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Jools_of_Top_Cat on 26/11/2003 01:52 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[roni]

The JRC 1000 I own is one of 12 units order directly from "WEST MARINE" by our club.None of them work's well/at all.
Belive me for good practice in radars.
Since the year 2000 when the radar appears, changes was done, however new board cost 500$.
After passing 2000 mile in the BLACK SEA I know.
Still waste of money.

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[Oldhand]

Go for it, the SL-72 is very good and all you really need. If you feed it with GPS output, it will display the location of the next waypoint on the radar display as well as giving Nav info. on the data display.

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[tom52]

Hi

I have just bought and fitted one myself. No problem ( £1250 with 10m of cable and mast mount)
Many of the favourable comments in this post have the magic C letter after their kit. You wont get colour display for £1250/1300.
Black and white screen visibility is disappointing. especially if mounted in the cockpit which is really where you want it. Even in no sunlight on a cloudy day it can be like looking in a mirror.
Will display allsorts of GPS data links well with my Garmin

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[pentland]

To me a CRT is the only 'feature' worth having. I cannot imagine navigating in anger on a colour screen. On a small display as we have on our boats the more uncluttered the better. The feel of controlling the gain on a CRT and interpreting the echoes sure gives confidence IMO.

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[steve6367]

Fitted a JRC 1000 MKII on Herm over the summer. So far has been excellent both crossing shipping lanes and local sailing. Time will tell if it will be reliable in the long term.

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