Does a pasive radar reflector make that much difference?

Hi Roberto

I'm impressed that there is at least one boat in French waters with a proper reflector! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Those Mobri small diameter cylinder things are really useless, especially the ones carefully fitted laying horizontally along the spreaders. Then there are the very tiny octahedrals fitted into the backstay and point upwards or hanging same way from the spreaders, not to mention 80% with nothing at all.

Robin
 
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They don't have much cross sectional area, which is what counts. /quote]

Taking away that reflector, ie having nothing is only going to make matters worse.
 
One of the mags, possibly PBO, did a test on this a few years ago. The reflectors did make a difference as I recall it, though some were not too great. The interesting point was that as a joke they ran a plastic bag up the mast with some bacofoil in it, and that worked at least as well as anything else
 
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Hi Roberto

I'm impressed that there is at least one boat in French waters with a proper reflector! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Those Mobri small diameter cylinder things are really useless, especially the ones carefully fitted laying horizontally along the spreaders. Then there are the very tiny octahedrals fitted into the backstay and point upwards or hanging same way from the spreaders, not to mention 80% with nothing at all.

Robin

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Hello Robin /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif,


yes that's true, I just fitted it as I took the mast down to replace all the shrouds

in my port there is another boat (white ensign) having a firdell/echomax reflector: the number of times I heard people asking "qu'est-ce que c'est that white thing up the mast ?"

funniest was "is it a mast floater for when she capsizes ?", that boat must be 14/15m long /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Roberto

The standard test when we are in France to determine if the distant boat now approaching is another British one or a local is if it has a) a white cylinder on the mast and b) a string of flags dangling from the starboard spreaders, and maybe even a few more on the port spreaders. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Robin
 
Robin

ha ha that's very true, I d add that it is a common opinion here that "if you want to know where a perfect anchorage is, look for les British"
I d put restaurants in the lot, you guys must have excellent guidebooks /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif


cheers
 
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ha ha that's very true, I d add that it is a common opinion here that "if you want to know where a perfect anchorage is, look for les British"
I d put restaurants in the lot, you guys must have excellent guidebooks

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You started something here Roberto! So that is why when we anchor in a nice corner away from the crowd that they all move over our way!

As for the restaurants it isn't the guide books but some of us have the ability to sniff out good ones which comes from years of practice. Part of the early learned skill was to pick a restaurant with no Brits in it, the reverse approach to French anchoring tactics!

Robin
 
Second that. The old octohedral is still one of the best. There are other good ones too but some cheap and cheerfuls are a complete waste of time and IMHO should be banned from sale unless they are certified to have passed some kind of certification test. All they do is lull the owner into a false sense of security. Personally I have a blipper which I have up there all the time but I am always concious of the fact that it is perhaps not as good in some circumstances as an octo so I have a gert big one I hoist as well if crossing the channel or in poor vis.
 
yes it does - if your boat is grp it is practically transparent to radar /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Does it then follow from this that "offshore" a radar reflector is of no use since it doesn't work on S band and the big ships have turned X nband sets off.
 
Very much Yes if they are working S band only. The 'average' yacht size reflector is X band which is not a lot of use for S band. That is not a reason for having an X band reflector since most of us spend our time inshore but don't rely on one in mid Channel. Yer average yachty radar is X band.
 
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