RADAR

[Crikey]

Nothing wrong with Radar IMHO except for the cost at the present time (for me). Some of the newest small low power digital units are just amazing. I've also sailed as crew on a friends boat down the St.Lawrence seaway to Tadoussac and Gaspe, and it's definitely not a place you want to be moving in in fog, which can occur at any time. I hope to do this in my MacGregor someday soon.
I'm running navigational redundancy with both a handheld Garmin (760C) plugged into my 12v bus, and a similarly configured laptop running PolarNavy chart plotting software with a GPS puck. I figure I'm covered up to a total power outage. Radar overlay can be added into this.

The handheld satellite position reporting device looked affordable, and neat

[Doupirate]

I am a former airplane (small airplanes flying instructor) pilot. I was much younger. A summer and week-end student job. I once crashed in a nightime snow storm, in the wild, by the seashore, with a controlled electrical fire.

With a handheld GPS, which were not available at the time (1976) I could have flown to a major terminal, landed on a radar approach and laughed, instead of of deliberatly safely destroying the airplane in a controlled crash and double breaking my mandibule in the dash.

Navigation allows you to work intelligently in tough situations. If bad comes to worse, despite all good seamanship exercised, with navigation and communication, you save your life and your cat life as well!

[Kittiwake]

I am becoming a believer in the concept that navigational electronics are far superior when located right at the helm - eg. in your hand or mounted there. Even a big compass mounted to one side of the cabin door can be darn tough to read from the helm. I'm not sure what I would do with navigational software on my laptop: it would (for me) be like my original VHF radio - trustworthy and powerful, but bolted inside the cabin where it is approximately no use except for listening to weather reports at anchor. Especially when the chips are down, I sure like to have my guidance system right there with me at the wheel.

Kittiwake

[Divecoz]

$1333.00 IF........ You have compatible GPS Chart-Plotter... I am thinking of replacing my Garmin 541s .. by putting it on a CC for fishing.. Harbor Bay and Estuaries
That said ... Garmin has 2 small domes for $999 and $1199.. I sent an E-mail to tech support to see if the $999 GMR Dome will interface with my 545s

That looks like just the radome for the Humminbird unit. Then you need the mount, head unit, special Ethernet switch and cables... all that will put you well over $3,000...

[Divecoz]

I question was posed to me and maybe someone here has the answer..
Radar Current draw?? I was asked if my Electrical system would support such demand ? That question was based on my comment.. I could use it for Burglar alarm on anchor.. As he mentioned.. He has two 315 HP Engines that have to run to move his boat so the current draw is of little to no consequence to him.. and he has 4 Huge Golf Cart Batteries to draw from at night.. humm I have 2, relatively speaking, tiny car batteries...
Are these things Big Power Hogs.. I'll try to find an answer off Garmin and Hummingbird sites as well.

[Divecoz]

Ball Park Answer.. Figure no less than 5 amh and maybe as high as 6..

I question was posed to me and maybe someone here has the answer..
Radar Current draw?? I was asked if my Electrical system would support such demand ? That question was based on my comment.. I could use it for Burglar alarm on anchor.. As he mentioned.. He has two 315 HP Engines that have to run to move his boat so the current draw is of little to no consequence to him.. and he has 4 Huge Golf Cart Batteries to draw from at night.. humm I have 2, relatively speaking, tiny car batteries...
Are these things Big Power Hogs.. I'll try to find an answer off Garmin and Hummingbird sites as well.

[kleinhhl]

Well, taking the Garmin 18 (non HD) radar as an example:

The manual states that it consumes 33.5W of power with an input voltage ranging between 10.5-35V.
So, taking 12V as the nominal input voltage says that it will draw 2.8A of current.
Let's say that the system is on for 12 hours at night.

If you have a 500Ah house battery that is fully charged (and you don't recharge the battery during the night), you would practically be able to use 60% of that capacity (because it's bad to completely discharge a battery), or 300Ah.

You are asking the battery to supply 2.8A for 12 hours or to use 33.6Ah of its capacity.

Not counting the power used by the radar display unit and any other items you may have switched on, a radar would be well within the limits of most MacGregor 26X battery setups.

[Catigale]

Most Group 24 batteries are only about 80 Amp hour capacity. A 33 amp hour radar would use up the working capacity ( about half full capacity) of a group 24 in 12 hours, then you would need to recharge fairly heavily

[flyboy26m]

This is the one I have picked out:

http://www.wmjmarine.com/41612.html

[mastreb]

You should seriously consider this:
http://www.lowrance.com/Products/Marine ... -4G-Radar/

It uses broadband frequency hopping to dramatically clarify the radar return images and eliminate ghosting. As a former Navy electronic warfare technician, I can tell you it makes a big difference. It's also much lower power than other offerings because it doesn't have to use power to get enough return signal to discriminate targets.

It's also considerably less expensive.

Matt

[amysailboat]

I found an old Raytheon radar unit on Craig's list for $250. It picks up all the atons and coastline, and along with the gps crumbtrail I can find my way home at nite.
I'm new at this-how do I post a pic of my boat?

[Crikey]

You should seriously consider this:
http://www.lowrance.com/Products/Marine ... -4G-Radar/

It uses broadband frequency hopping to dramatically clarify the radar return images and eliminate ghosting. As a former Navy electronic warfare technician, I can tell you it makes a big difference. It's also much lower power than other offerings because it doesn't have to use power to get enough return signal to discriminate targets.

It's also considerably less expensive.

Matt

$1899 - That's pretty sweet for such an amazing capability!