Just discovered RADAR - it's brilliant!

[Colvic Watson]

Our last boat had RADAR, a relatively new JRC LCD set, installed at the nav table. It was rubbish, couldn't get to grips with it and being inside the saloon we never bothered to learn.

The Kipper has an old steam powered Raytheon set so it'll be rubbish right? We nearly didn't bother but decided to include it in the rewire - but it's amazing - coming up the Deben river you could see the winding shape of the river clearly on the screen, small GRP boats showed up clearly, we couldn't reliably pick up bouys without a reflector on them but everything else was there. Now I see why old salts rate it so much. I wouldn't be without AIS, class A is a brilliant help, but the addition of a good RADAR is a great help. I suppose the ultimate is a big screen plotter with class A and RADAR overlay? When we win the lottery perhaps

 

[dslittle]

Our last boat had RADAR, a relatively new JRC LCD set, installed at the nav table. It was rubbish, couldn't get to grips with it and being inside the saloon we never bothered to learn.

The Kipper has an old steam powered Raytheon set so it'll be rubbish right? We nearly didn't bother but decided to include it in the rewire - but it's amazing - coming up the Deben river you could see the winding shape of the river clearly on the screen, small GRP boats showed up clearly, we couldn't reliably pick up bouys without a reflector on them but everything else was there. Now I see why old salts rate it so much. I wouldn't be without AIS, class A is a brilliant help, but the addition of a good RADAR is a great help. I suppose the ultimate is a big screen plotter with class A and RADAR overlay? When we win the lottery perhaps

On watch one night I watched a squall approaching for about an hour. Judging by it's speed and direction I guessed that it would hit us at about 0100. I was due to be relieved at 0100 but my relief had been late for the previous few watches ( no great problem in the scheme of things). On this ocassion however I did not relish going to bed wet. At 0050 my relief appeared to the sound of a tarrah. I smiled to myself, suggested that she put on some wet weathers and managed to get into my bed just as the first patter of rain lulled me off to sleep. Radar is truly amazing...

 

[Hoolie]

... ... ...
I suppose the ultimate is a big screen plotter with class A and RADAR overlay? When we win the lottery perhaps

The developer of OpenCPN (Dave Register) is working on a radar overlay for the software. OpenCPN already has AIS.
Sadly it won't work with your "steam-powered" radar, nor ours It will be limited to more modern Ethernet connected radars, starting with Garmin but I'm sure there will be all the other major brands eventually.
It's almost worth an upgrade ... ... ...

 

[PaulGooch]

The developer of OpenCPN (Dave Register) is working on a radar overlay for the software. OpenCPN already has AIS.
Sadly it won't work with your "steam-powered" radar, nor ours It will be limited to more modern Ethernet connected radars, starting with Garmin but I'm sure there will be all the other major brands eventually.
It's almost worth an upgrade ... ... ...

I read that on the Open CPN forum, good news as i have a Garmin radome

I'm tinkering around with a nav setup for the next boat, part of which will be a laptop/tablet PC (Toshiba M400). AIS, sounder and GPS will go to a multiplexor, which will then go to a plotter inside and another outside, as well as the laptop, via Bluetooth.

I've temporarily wired some of it to the current boat to test it and it works very nicely. For anyone without a large screen plotter, it's a cheap system. 2nd hand laptop from Ebay £125, 2nd hand multiplexor £75. NMEA feeds from GPS, sounder and AIS. As an add on to existing kit (GPS sounder and AIS), i have a 12" plotter with AIS overlay and digital depth for £200.

 

[LittleSister]

I'm tinkering around with a nav setup for the next boat, part of which will be a laptop/tablet PC (Toshiba M400). AIS, sounder and GPS will go to a multiplexor, which will then go to a plotter inside and another outside, as well as the laptop, via Bluetooth.

Sounds good. Do you think it will be compatible with my hand-held compass and lead-line?

 

[johnalison]

I have just sold my old Raytheon which I had for 12 years and it was certainly brilliant and easy to use. I suggest the OP keeps playing with his, since I have picked up unoccupied mooring buoys in the Walton channel and the odd sea-bird. It is worth keeping the sea clutter control turned down and the gain as high as needed.

 

[njsail]

I only started using Radar a couple years ago but now I'm a believer. The most important part of using Radar is knowing how to use it. Don't wait until you're in a no visibility situation to turn it on and think you're going to make proper use of it. There are a lot of various settings to highlight what you want to see and fade what you don't.

I didn't think it would do this but our radar picks up the bouys and cans so I can spot them and at least know where to shine the spot light to laze them and see the color at night. We also have a lot of traffic in our sailing area and a few contrast adjustments and I can gain that little extra comfort seeing everything around us even in great visibility and which direction they are moving.

Other cool features are you can flag a moving target and track it or define a box and if anything comes inside the box an alarm will sound. Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Colvic Watson]

Thanks, quite a few skills to learn it seems. The JRC had three buttons, this one has about 20, I've got the manual so we'll work through them. I particularly like the idea of turning up the gain to show likely buoy locations at night to shine the spotlight on.

 

[fireball]

The developer of OpenCPN (Dave Register) is working on a radar overlay for the software. OpenCPN already has AIS.

That sounds excellent - just what I've been waiting for ...

I'd like a multi-monitor setup - mirroring the monitors I could have the display at the helm and one forward for the crew - if desperate I could also put one in at the chart table ... Then there is the remote view software - VNC - so I could view it from anywhere .. or use the remote mouse/keyboard app on the smartphone to control it