radar

[lady jane]

furuno 1623.

i have decided to look into fitting radar on the boat, so if anybody has used this unit or others that are stand alone please could you give me some details on good and bad points.

unfortunateley the new broadband units are out of my price range.

 

thanks,

andy

[gjb]

I had this unit and found it to be first class and no problems picked up everything

 

graham

[great white]

Hi Andy

 

If budget is tight talk to Matt at MES

I bought mine second hand from him [removed from a boat when they upgraded] price was sensible and it works fine

 

I even have a second hand one at work available but its an old style set.

 

Charlie

[duncan]

having an older unit (really early LCD) I have looked at many since.

 

don't skimp on the screen - on leisure units now the raydomes are all pretty solid performers, and unless you are mounting it very high (somehow) even the lower powered units will go the your horizon for all but the largest vessels.

 

there are only 2 problems with radar -

1. power hungry that can be an issue when drifting engine off

2. once you have had one you will never head out without one again!

[Adam F]

I can add to the above:

 

Mine gets used very little.... but when it does - boy is it a boon! The fog we've had the past few weeks doesnt worry me a bit. Sure a good lookout is needed, but with a decent radar if gives you 'eyes' in the murk!

 

Make sure it's set up right and you know how to use it. The demo at the club meet the other week was good for this. The kit isnt quite plug and play, getting it set up correctly makes a huge difference to performance.

 

Finally - we have the Lowrance broadband unit - very good - on a calm sea it will pick up pot buoys not too bad and small fishing boats easily.

 

 

[lady jane]

thank you for your help ,

 

andy

[lady jane]

update,

in the end i opted for the furuno 1623.

the unit is now fitted and had its first trial on saturday.

unfortunately saturday was not the best day to be trying all the different settings, even so the quality with the factory settings was very good.

 

a couple of times it showed up a wedge shape on the screen, would this be because the vessel has a active radar reflector ?

 

 

thanks to those who gave advise.

 

andy

Edited September 6, 2010 by lady jane

[gjb]

Well done good setup

 

graham