Raytheon R10X - need new cover. Advice welcome!

[pat_detente]

Our aged Moody 33 is equipped with a Raytheon R10X radar. On Monday we noticed with dismay that the protective cover on the mast was missing - must have blown off during a gale on Saturday night. Luckily the radar itself is still intact and working.

As the Raytheon is a "retired" model, I am not hopeful that Raymarine will be able to help with a replacement cover, although I have emailed the company with this question.

I wonder if anyone has had similar problems and if they have any suggestions as to alternative models that might be compatible with ours, or how they set about making their own replacement?

Thanks

 

[pvb]

People are replacing R10X radars all the time, so there should be used radomes available if only you can find them. In addition to a "Wanted" ad in these forums, try contacting some of the supply-and-fit electronics people and ask them to look out for a used radome moulding for you. You might find the Raymarine dealer list useful - see here.

Another possibility is to see whether it's possible to mount your scanner in a new-style radome - I'm fairly certain the new ones are a little bigger than the R10X radome, so the internal bits should fit.

 

[Speed]

That's good advice - we had exactly the same problem this season, after our R10X radome was damaged when the mast was down.

Many "electronics" outfits these days seem to only willing to replace entire units - one electrician proudly told me he hadn't opened a radome in five years - he simply took them off and returned them to manufacturers.

We were lucky, and tracked a perfect second hand casing down at local supply and fit company Fowey Marine Electronics, who not only fitted the old innards, renewed the main circuit board (damaged as a result of the casing being smashed) and tuned it up, so that the radar now works better than it ever did before - all at very modest cost.

It's well worth sounding around locally for a similar firm - and maybe we should all try and support those companies that think of us as customers and not just "punters" when we're looking to buy electronics these days.

 

[pat_detente]

Thanks for the advice - we do intend asking around locally. All we need is a new casing, as the innards have not been damaged and the radar is working perfectly. Not sure how long the bin liner will last over the winter, though!!!

 

[pvb]

Lakesailored! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif