Radar for dummies

mrangry

mrangry

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I have purchased a B&G Vulcan chartplotter for my new to me Beneteau 440. I am looking to add radar but a little confused on what to buy that will be compatible. I have never had radar and being a Paisley man looking to do for as little as possible. Any input greatly appreciated.
 
Don't know much about radar but I did an RYA course recently and the instructor had just bought a used radar for his boat which he said were to be had at a bargain price after the introduction of a new, lower power type system to which people were upgrading.
Hopefully somebody more knowledgable will come along to disparage/ endorse my scant advice.
 
Quiddle said:
Don't know much about radar but I did an RYA course recently and the instructor had just bought a used radar for his boat which he said were to be had at a bargain price after the introduction of a new, lower power type system to which people were upgrading.
Hopefully somebody more knowledgable will come along to disparage/ endorse my scant advice.
Click to expand...

The B&G 3G radome mentioned in post 2 was discontinued last year, so can now be found for about £1300, although there aren't many left in stock. It was replaced by the Halo20, which sells currently for about £2000. The problem is that you can't just connect any old radome; it needs to be a B&G radome which will interface with the Vulcan.
 
That makes it easier I suppose as I wondered whether any other manufacturers radar scanners would be just plug and play.
 
mrangry said:
That makes it easier I suppose as I wondered whether any other manufacturers radar scanners would be just plug and play.
Click to expand...

I suppose I should complicate matters by saying that the B&G 3G radome is a Navico product. Navico also own Simrad and Lowrance, and both these brands had a 3G radome (same product, different badge), so a Simrad 3G or Lowrance 3G radome should work with your Vulcan plotter.
 
Quiddle said:
Don't know much about radar but I did an RYA course recently and the instructor had just bought a used radar for his boat which he said were to be had at a bargain price after the introduction of a new, lower power type system to which people were upgrading.
Hopefully somebody more knowledgable will come along to disparage/ endorse my scant advice.
Click to expand...

Many old traditional radars were quite power hungry and for yachts produced decent range but poor definition as the beam angle was very large.

New scanners ( usually branded as 3g or digital or broadband or HD ) have a reduced range ( but still ok for yachts) much lower power consumption and ,much better resolution - in many ways they are better for navigation but slightly worse for watch keeping
 
pvb said:
The B&G broadband radomes offer up to 48nm range, which is loads!
Click to expand...

Possibly should have said nominally reduced range as you'd probably need to mount the radome fairly high to take advantage of that

Just looking at my Radar course notes and they also state a nominal fall in performance in rain, snow and fog but still sensitive enough to locate individual wooden piles if coming into a river so probably no real world negative impact.

Personally - i would want one of the new ones
 
Just two weeks ago installed 4g unit to my Lowrence plotter, as above same unit to simrad and B&G, could not believe how simple to install and set up, the instant on/off and low power really impressive. The clarity and range impressive, the instructions cover all the navico systems with adapter cables

could not justify the higher Halo cost
 
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