Electronics and radar

maverickofpoole

maverickofpoole

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Poole....there's a surprise :-)
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I have an 8 metre sports fisher with a Raymarine A65 plotter, Raymarine DS600 sounder. Raymarine X5 sport pilot auto pilot and a furuno gp32 back up gps. I would like to upgrade to a larger screen that will be a plotter accept Radar and AIS. I would like it to all overlay onto one screen. Screen size I have in mind is 12" but may be able to fit a 14". I will keep the furuno and DS600 sounder.

What would you guys recommend as good kit and why.

The reason I ask is that I am bloomin confused with the amount of choice especially HD Broadband and the likes.

All suggestions appreciated

Martin
 
maverickofpoole said:
I have an 8 metre sports fisher with a Raymarine A65 plotter, Raymarine DS600 sounder. Raymarine X5 sport pilot auto pilot and a furuno gp32 back up gps. I would like to upgrade to a larger screen that will be a plotter accept Radar and AIS. I would like it to all overlay onto one screen. Screen size I have in mind is 12" but may be able to fit a 14". I will keep the furuno and DS600 sounder.

What would you guys recommend as good kit and why.

The reason I ask is that I am bloomin confused with the amount of choice especially HD Broadband and the likes.

All suggestions appreciated

Martin
Click to expand...

Garmin GPSMAP 4012, Garmin radome, G2 vision chart card and a Comar AIS.

With radar, AIS is little more than a gadget though. All the big stuff will show really clearly on the radar, the little stuff that doesn't have an AIS transponder will also mostly show up on the radar too. Only stuff that doesn't show up well is the retards in small boats without radar reflectors.
 
longjohnsilver said:
Price? Customer support. Reliability.
Click to expand...

Spot on.

Lowrance, Navman, Northstar etc (all the same bunch) support, if you get a problem, is pants.

Raymarine is OK, but relies on Navionics, whose support is dreadful.

Standard Horizon support is great, but the kit is basic.

Garmin are moving ahead in leaps and bounds. Support is top notch.

Recently, i was torn between Garmin and Raymarine and unfortunately went for Raymarine. C90W, digital radar, Navionics Gold, Comar AIS. I had a problem with the zoom on the plotter and got bounced back and forth between Raymarine, the C90W supplier and Navionics. Tests, with the aid of the chandler that supplied the plotter, clearly showed the problem was a faulty chart card. My experience with Navionics was the worst customer support i've ever had.

I have not stopped kicking myself for buying Raymarine and wishing i had Garmin. If you fancy Raymarine instead of Garmin, buy the Garmin one and i'll swap you :)
 
PaulGooch said:
Spot on.

Lowrance, Navman, Northstar etc (all the same bunch) support, if you get a problem, is pants.

Raymarine is OK, but relies on Navionics, whose support is dreadful.

Standard Horizon support is great, but the kit is basic.

Garmin are moving ahead in leaps and bounds. Support is top notch.

Recently, i was torn between Garmin and Raymarine and unfortunately went for Raymarine. C90W, digital radar, Navionics Gold, Comar AIS. I had a problem with the zoom on the plotter and got bounced back and forth between Raymarine, the C90W supplier and Navionics. Tests, with the aid of the chandler that supplied the plotter, clearly showed the problem was a faulty chart card. My experience with Navionics was the worst customer support i've ever had.

I have not stopped kicking myself for buying Raymarine and wishing i had Garmin. If you fancy Raymarine instead of Garmin, buy the Garmin one and i'll swap you :)
Click to expand...

The range of experiences is wide. I've had Raymaine/Navionics for ages and never had a problem. I've recently installed some new Raym stuff and their customer support has been excellent, to the extent of emailing me software files and turning around email questions in 10mins. I would definitely buy Raym for this application, and if budget is unlimed I'd get an E140 or 120 W with touch screen and Navionics platinum plus

I'll put up for sale on here 3xE120s straight after easter, at half the new price so I think that means £1325 each. Mint and boxed. I expect to have them back in the UK just after Easter.
 
Thanks for your input JFM

Budget will be a bit of an issue but Peter and Paul may come into play :D I must have toys :)

I'd be interested in your thoughts on the C120/140W models. I was talking to a friend who works for (manager type) a large marine electronics supplier. He reckons for what I need these units would be top notchish. Also some users of broadband/hd radar state that mid to long range maybe an issue? any thoughts here

Are those units your are bringing back E120W or the plain E120?

Thanks again
Martin
 
One thing to consider is that the Northstar will allow a Broadband radar whilst the others are conventional digitally processed pulsed radars.

Panbo did a rough and ready test on 18" radomes - haven't posted the link in case that's not allowed but feel free to PM me. The general conclusion seemed to be that Broadband was excellent at resolving close range targets but that Raymarine was very nearly as good. Garmin was impressive but not as good as Raymarine. Furuno was actually very slightly better than Raymarine but very expensive.

Broadband had a question mark over spotting rain showers and is slightly unproven compared to the others - the big advantages of lower power and immediate switch on are probably more relevant to yachties than a MoBo. It was the best at close range work though.

Critically, absolutely none of them managed to fry an egg taped to the radome despite trying for some time.
 
maverickofpoole said:
What would you guys recommend as good kit and why.
Click to expand...

Having recently spent some time up a mast next an operational high power radar scanner I am becoming a big fan of Broadband Radar!

Having said that I would second the view that Garmin are leading the way with integrated systems at the moment, we have been supplying and fitting Garmin systems for years and they have always been good and just keep getting better.

Garmin also have a three station DSC VHF with built in AIS, which is a lot of TLAs for your money. :D

A 12" Garmin is going to be around 1700.00 for the GPSMAP4012 or 2400.00 for the GPSMAP5012 which is the touchscreen version.

Back to Broadband Radar, there is a premium for the scanner at 1500.00 vs 800.00 for an old style.

I hope that helps.
 
Hi Martin,

I'm quite fine with a Raymarine C80 with radar and digital sounder, but regret the size of the display, and would rather choose for a C120. (or 2 E120's)
but now I am considering the Humminbird plotter with side scan sonar as a extra and backup toy
 
Thanks Malthouse I am coming over to Alderney in May so may well pay you a visit to have a look see.

Bart I am leaning slightly towards a Raymarine c120w. I will keep my existing sounder as a separate screen so hopefully not having to many split screens will keep the screen useable

Martin
 
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