Is it worth having my radar fixed

[purplerobbie]

My radar has been bust since i bought the boat and i have just got round to taking it down and taking it to the menders.

It is a Raytheon RL70
There is a board gone in it and they want £400 + vat to repair it (it needs a new scanner cable too)

Is it worth repairing?

Or should i buy a new Garmin?
I can get the Garmin 3006 for £1249
Has anyone used the garmin?
Is it any good?

Rob

 

[pvb]

[ QUOTE ]
It is a Raytheon RL70. There is a board gone in it and they want £400 + vat to repair it (it needs a new scanner cable too)

[/ QUOTE ]I think you know the answer - that much money would be better spent on something newer and better.

 

[Talbot]

You can get a Furuno 1623 for a LOT less than that

 

[Flossdog]

Same thing happened to my SL70. Local agent had trouble getting a quote from Raytheon for a new whatever but the spare cost was £400ish. So I kept looking on the Forum For Sale section and joy of joys, a forumite who had upgraded his radar had a SL70 display unit for sale at a very reasonable figure. Money (less than £100) changed hands and my radar now works fine.

 

[purplerobbie]

[ QUOTE ]
Same thing happened to my SL70. Local agent had trouble getting a quote from Raytheon for a new whatever but the spare cost was £400ish. So I kept looking on the Forum For Sale section and joy of joys, a forumite who had upgraded his radar had a SL70 display unit for sale at a very reasonable figure. Money (less than £100) changed hands and my radar now works fine.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's the scanner on mine. Its the "I,F" board. What ever that may be
Having reread my post i didnt make it clear that the £400 + vat is with the cable. Sorry

Rob

 

[richardabeattie]

Modern technolgy: If it's broke don't fix it.

 

[Flossdog]

All may not be lost as the "old" SL70 2kw scanner won't work with the new colour radars so there may be people selling their scanners as well as their display units when they upgrade.

 

[sailorman]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Raytheon-RL70-Path...ksid=p1638.m122

 

[purplerobbie]

Thats interesting.
It is a pathfinder scanner too.

Rob

 

[purplerobbie]

[ QUOTE ]
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Raytheon-RL70-Path...ksid=p1638.m122

[/ QUOTE ]
No the other bit.
Rob

 

[bobgoode]

The RL70 is a fine radar but at that price look around for new Furuno (about 750 squids) and fit ...warranty as well.

 

[PeterGibbs]

I suggest that there may be any number of problems with an old defunct set. If you can fit a new radar yourself - I did, it's not rocket science - you would do well to install new and have that reassurance.

As you may know, when the call goes down for the radar to be fired up, you don't want to hear anything other than "targets acquired!" from the nav station.

PWG

 

[mainmarine]

Post a wanted ad on here, I bought a scanner, in very good condition, for my RL70 for £250 , which is also what they go for on eBay.
I have an RL70 mono plotter/radar which I am going to sell on eBay later this year for around £180 which is the going rate for these.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

Have you considered having the IF board fixed, it is only an amplifier/mixer, should be fairly simple repair. Or is this really the end of my trade now??

(IF - intermediate frequency (low freq) - Local oscillator frequency is mixed with RF (radio frequency (high freq) to create IF - Basically, this is the tuning of the radar, the antenna will receive a whole multitude of signals and to these it adds the local oscillator frequency (jiggery pokery) out put the wanted signal I.F. (simplified response before some perfectionist comes on to argue about principles of radio, I know them, I am not trying to run a training course here).

I bet, you will find something obvious on the card if the radar is dead to the world, prolly not even a component failure.

Ah well, buy a new one, tis the only way, I guess people like me are only good for working in curries or Macjunkfood now.