Radar Reflectors

[Dave_Rolfe]

I have a Firdell Blipper radar reflector that was given to me some years ago that I am thinking of fitting to the front of my mast as we have just changed boats to a Legend 290 (my previous boat had one fitted when we purchased it).

I was astonished when told at my local chandlers that the stainless steel brackets to fit this to the mast would be £40.

It seems that as the reflector is gettiing on a bit perhaps it would be better to bite the bullet and buy a new one with brackets.

Could anyone advise me on whether the design of these things has improved the efficiency over the last (say ten years) and what would be a suitable one for a 9m yacht should I decide to replace with new.

thanks

 

[Talbot]

Firdell is still one of the best, but the echomax is reportedly better. Neither give an enormous improvemnt over a proper octahedral reflector of a decent size.

 

[Swagman]

Why not consider just hoisting it to the spreaders on a flag halliard when in fog?
That way you save on your brackets, keep the the boat looking neater (cos they are not exactly good looking devices) and reduce windage for the 99% of the time you don't need it?
JOHN
JOHN

 

[rob2]

I doubt there has been much advance in the last decade. I seem to recall that the Blipper has been around far longer than that, without any adverts claiming new performance specifications. The dielectric lens type at the mast top was around ten years ago and most of the others haven't a hope in hell of making the recommended 10 sq metre equivalence without giving you the windage of a block of flats!
To achieve an improved performance you need an active transponder - but as in the recent thread, these are only available for one frequency band.
Maybe you can get a set of brackets from ebay, pending the new technology catching up?

 

[Mirelle]

That's exactly what I do with mine.

(It's concevable that the brackets are still somewhere in the heap of discasrded boat bits in the garage...)

 

[homa]

Try Quaywest on-line chandlers, they have radar reflector brackets for mast mounting at £17.95 a pair

 

[Malish]

there was a reasonably scientific review in YM in June 05, as far as passive reflectors goes they liked the tri-lens series - they gave a much more predictable, consistent reflection at all angles and when heeled (better than echomax etc)

 

[matt1]

Do consider the Tri-Lens - it has a much smaller echo than any of the Blipper or Echomax types but crucially it has virtually no null point so that smaller echo is at least constant at whatever heal, aspect, angle etc. This may be more important with ships automated tracking and alerts than the actual size of the echo. The tril lens is considerably less windage than tehother types too.

 

[Evadne]

I remember the article, but there were two sizes of tri lens (plus a copy IIRC) and they did rate the larger one much more highly then the smaller one.
After thinking about this for myself for a while, the plan is to get an Echomax. The Seame is indubitably the more visible, but recalling all the times when I really needed a reflector, the first time was when drifting engineless off Folkestone with a dead battery, and an active device would not have been much use.

 

[pvb]

Interesting test report...

There's a 10-year-old test report which makes interesting reading. Basically, it concludes that the Blipper (and similar designs) aren't as good as the trusty old octahedral device.

 

[Krusty]

I fitted a Tri-lens, (not the smallest or largest) at about 8m above sea-level, and recently had the opportunity to put it to the test while crossing the Minch in a F4-F5 as a Calmac ferry was on a reciprocal course for the port I had left. I called him up and asked if he would monitor my radar return while steaming away, and call me back when it faded.
He called back to report that the return was strong until 7M range and began to fade into the clutter at 8M: then without question or prompting he commented 'A very good return from a small yacht!'.
I had maintained course, so he was dead astern and the Trilens was half-hidden by my mast. I am reassured by that result.

 

[whisper]

We fitted a tri-lens as well. No one has run us down yet /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif