Sea-me Radar enhancer, X band recon.

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anniebray

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I'm in the final stages of fitting out for UK to Canaries trip & would like to fit a Seame but budget is getting tight. A dual band model at £700 would be nice but the budget is getting tight.....would a recon Sea-me X band at £220 be worthwhile or does it have to be dual band ?
PS I do have a passive reflector, AIS, & Radar
 
Yes, can any one tell me what the difference is. Since dual band only seems to be recently available, what are the respective bands transmitting from? My see me is from 2007 and only single band, what protection am i missing by not having dual?
Thanks Andy
 
This thread gives most of the info: http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=227908

Sailing from UK to Caribbean last season I never saw a ship that was not using x-band, even in mid Atlantic. Quite often my single band transponder was firing off without me ever seeing the ship that was over the horizon.

If I was fitting from new, I would spend the extra dosh and get a dual band transponder just for the extra peace of mind.
 
andrewfollett said:
Yes, can any one tell me what the difference is. Since dual band only seems to be recently available, what are the respective bands transmitting from? My see me is from 2007 and only single band, what protection am i missing by not having dual?
Thanks Andy
Click to expand...

X-band radars transmit at a frequency of just under 10GHz with a wavelength of just over 3cm.
S-band radars transmit at a frequency of just about 3GHz with a wavelength of about 10cm.

Most small craft only use X-band. Ships generally use both.

X band gives (reasonably) good picture even with a small scanner: with the big scanners used by ships it is very much better. S-band gives much less good definition, but it is much better at "cutting through" heavy rain, and is much less susceptible to clutter. So there is a possibility that an X-band Sea-Me might get lost in clutter when a dual-band one wouldn't.

Also in bad weather a ship's watchkeeper is likely to regard S-band as his primary radar, whereas in good weather (especially inshore) he would probably regard X-band as his primary radar.

But either of them is a lot better than hanging a so-called "radar reflector" up your mast. (A radar reflector is about as much use as a lucky rabbit's foot -- (and think how much good that did for the rabbit!))
 
Thanks for that.
The long and short seems to be that x band would be most widely used at night or in fog but s band might be the primary source of radar info for a ship in bad/rain swept scenarios. Many thanks for the help
 
If you have AIS TX/RX isn't a transponder overkill?? I find on long passages that if we pick up a vessel on AIS and I am not sure if he/she has seen me, I have the c/s from the AIS so call to make sure. I know AIS isn't foolproof but then no aid is - all are there to supplement a good lookout. In 10000 miles we had intermittent AIS contacts at range but no commercial vessel was seen with AIS not working.

Just a thought....
 
As the OP I would like to second Andrew Follet & thank all who have replied. Where else could I have obtained more comprehensive & expert replies to my query and I'm sure many others have benefited ?
 
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