JRC Radar - thoughts?

[tcm]

Re: been \'sold\' to

having used radar about 1-2 times a year really rather urgently, best is to use/play/check it every single time out at sea, imho.

Note also that in the eyes of law/insurers etc , having radar installed and not having it switched on is not seen as keeping a good watch. Or, put another way, if both colliders have radar and one of them didn't have it switched on, then hmm, eh?

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[Guest]

Interesting stuff, Mike. Anything in particular he had a problem with?

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[jfm]

Re: not a fan of overlay

Ahem well yes it seemed ideal oppertunitee to experiment since all was included in price. Oooer oops. BUT as you say the main benefit of Furuno kit is the video in / out (and I did specify the extra video cards, see!) so you can watch a movie when the radar is too boring.

(sepret point: I've begun to worry that Arno have fitted Navionics software in the Furunos in D2, not CMap, as that's the only reason I can think for the unchangeable yellow colour. Did summat get lost in transaltion? It can be changed, just need to get Furuno dealer to load CMap reading software and get new cartridge)

On this overlay/north up I agree it is all personal taste. Agree that if you are using radar for nav then north up is best but there is massive difference between our scanners 4metres above sea and warship 40 metres. Warships get much better radar picture. Thus GPS is the primary position fix tool for most of us, and radar becomes a collision device so north up is more intuitive/better esp if not everyone on board is yachtmaster and you tell guest to "look at that screen and yell if we are heading for a blob". You can still sanity-check your GPS now and again by comparing the screen shapes, even if one is north up and other is course up.

This course up on the plotter seems to be a sailor thing. I bet everyone here has the plotter north up. But non sailors (judging by mrs jfm here) all have the car satnav switched to course up, so they can see from the screen whether to turn left or right......

Glad to hear others find overlay better. I didn't try it for long. The redraw seems to be limited not just by the fluxgate compass speed, but by the speed of the Furuno's computing horsepower in redrawing the picture

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[salamicollie]

I've got a JRC 1500 and love it.

There is one disadvantage with using the GPS input apart from the update rate as if you are in areas like Anglesey with strong tides even a 20k motorboat heading through the water can be very different direction from the GPS COG - therefore all bearings are out by this difference - confusing until you work out whats happening - terrible if you are on a 6 knot yacht at right angles to a 6 knot tide!.

If you use a fluxgate this not a problem.

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[tcm]

Re: not a fan of overlay

ooh, well, not too much worry re shitey lectronics i am now drowing in gps, radar and navigation-related kit.

Course-up, even on cars, seems too weird - strictly for those with no real sense of direction. For example, on a bendy road like say Aldwych the plot would be redrawing very confusingly and could cause a crash!

I will get a special man to come round bout the furuno. BUT it was all ordered with special part numbers by An Expert...



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[jfm]

Pilotage in the Aldwych

I'm not going near Aldwych ever, cept on bus/taxi. As you know it used to be WELL KNOWN INTRINSICALLY accident-prone black spot when London traffic was 8mph tops. Now that Ken has fixed congestion (really he has, you have to see it to believe) everyone including Toyotas razzes about at 30-35 making the place too dangerous to operate GPS and steering wheel at same time.

I'll check those part numbers (he says, skulking off, hoping not noticed....) grrrr

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[Renegade_Master]

Gottcha sounds a lot of fuss to me might as well have plotter display and radar next to each other.
Cant seem to grasp the benefit of having both on one screen, but there again I am tired today [yawn] up too early
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[DavidJ]

I agree
I think if I were kitting up again I would go for 2 separate 7 inch screens (no space for a 10 inch) however for the luxury my guess is that you add an extra £1000 on the bill.

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[Guest]

Agreed, but nowhere to fit two 7" screens, hence the need for a combined unit.

Aside: was somewhat concerned at the number of boats at LBS with nowhere to put a paper chart, other than the dining table...

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[byron]

was somewhat concerned at the number of boats at LBS with nowhere to put a paper chart, other than the dining table...
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This has been an increasing trend over the past decade, my boat's chart table being too small to take a regular chart folded in half. I had an overlay made to take care of this. I like my paper charts where I can get at them instantly.

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[Guest]

Re: not a fan of overlay

I think ARPA by way of NMEA data is a more accurate method of interface than overlay, also a video window is nice for secondary displays. The problem with overlay is that there is not standards that I know of to transmit the size and orientation of the radar picture, so you always end up in a muddle of propriatory hardware. Latest article online at Ocean Navigator Mag at: www.oceannavigator.com "convergence hits the nav station" might have some info of interest.

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[miket]

Thanks for those kind words Byron!
At least I was on top of the table, not under it.

Graham. The problem seemed to be that of missing echos that had been picked up on other equipment.

Lack of sensitivity as Byron would say.

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