Self-levelling radar mounts.

[prv]

Congratulations. You win the prize for taking the longest ever on YBW to answer a question. 5 years!!!!!

Can anyone else beat that?

Yes, easily. Sure I've seen threads from 2003 brought back from the dead by someone who didn't realise they were searching an archive rather than looking at live discussion.

The daft thing is when lots of others then pile in answering all the original posts, despite the fact that ancient threads are fairly obvious because the forum software has changed over the years and old ones are sprinkled with bits of HTML and other formatting code that no longer renders.

Pete

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

Yes, easily. Sure I've seen threads from 2003 brought back from the dead by someone who didn't realise they were searching an archive rather than looking at live discussion.

The daft thing is when lots of others then pile in answering all the original posts, despite the fact that ancient threads are fairly obvious because the forum software has changed over the years and old ones are sprinkled with bits of HTML and other formatting code that no longer renders.

Pete

I am sure you are right. It's bound to be nothing to do with instantly having a thread with lots of answers.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

I claim the record.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3879444#post3879444

 

[oldvarnish]

It becomes obvious very quickly when radar is not giving a good representation of the view outside the window, but otherwise it's an excellent tool for navigation.

Don't quite understand. If you are using your eyes to confirm what the radar is showing, why have the radar on at all?

 

[Ric]

i knew full well it was an old thread when I replied to it. It is still a relevant topic. Better to google first than start a new thread on a subject already discussed lots of times before.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

i knew full well it was an old thread when I replied to it. It is still a relevant topic. Better to google first than start a new thread on a subject already discussed lots of times before.

No worries. I like them. Mine swivels.

 

[William_H]

Radar

Lots of this thread got side tracked into worth of radar. I think for most boaties the answer is obvious as to whether they need or can afford radar. Certainly must be nice when you are socked in with fog.
Back to the original question about leveling.
Of interest is that all sophisticated aircaft have weather radar. On most aircaft the scanner is coupled to the gyros so that scanner scans horizontal regardless of pitch or roll. (electronic signal to drive motors to adjust the scanner in older radars at least.)
I would imagine that a self leveler based on pendulum and gravity might be subject to acceleration and motion unless very damped. Is it useful? A good question. It would be nice if forum could answer that question. I can't. good luck olewill

 

[aluijten]

Is it useful? A good question. It would be nice if forum could answer that question. I can't. good luck olewill

I have a self-level radar. I decided to go this route because the radar is not very high on the boat. According to Raymarine the vertical angle for the radar-beam is +- 12.5 degrees from the horizontal plane.

This means that as soon as you heeling exceeds 12.5 degrees the range of the radar becomes impaired. For our boat this is by no means excessive heeling.

The damping mechanism seems to work quite nicely. Every time I look the radardome seems to be nice a level but it is not easy to judge out on the water.

The pole itself has been custom build with a Scanstrut unit originally meant for mast mounting. It took quite some effort to create but I'm quite happy with it now.

 

[Ric]

I have a self-level radar. I decided to go this route because the radar is not very high on the boat. According to Raymarine the vertical angle for the radar-beam is +- 12.5 degrees from the horizontal plane.

This means that as soon as you heeling exceeds 12.5 degrees the range of the radar becomes impaired. For our boat this is by no means excessive heeling.

The damping mechanism seems to work quite nicely. Every time I look the radardome seems to be nice a level but it is not easy to judge out on the water.

The pole itself has been custom build with a Scanstrut unit originally meant for mast mounting. It took quite some effort to create but I'm quite happy with it now.

The beam is not so precisely focused. There will still be returns from outside the 12.5degrees. You are correct though that the return will be impaired. With my old analogue radar, when heeled I could fiddle around with the gain and STC settings to see objects on upwind side almost as well as if the boat was level, but then the downwind side would be unreadably obscured with clutter. If I tuned out the clutter on the downwind side, the upwind side was blind. By fitting the self-leveller I could get a symmetric picture.

I have now bought and am about to fit an RD418D which I see is what you have. It will be interesting to see if the advantage is so marked.