How to use a radar effectively?

[boatman1]

It’s difficult for me to accept that Brooks & Gatehouse doesn’t have some documentation that identifies and explains the controls well enough that an operator can put it through the paces. As others have said, practice/ play with it before you “need” it. The confirmation that radar provides can be real helpful. I recall one pitch black night coming into Beaufort NC when radar was worth the expense. Because of lights onshore it’s difficult to identify the lighted markers as you’re approaching and entering the inlet. There’s a substantial turn to port as entering: if you miss the turn you’ll soon be on a shoal. Spotting the markers on the radar makes it much safer.

[contrail]

Let me clarify, I always run my radar in “heading up” mode. This ensures what I see out in front of the boat is at the top of the MFD.

IMHO north-up is nice, but requires me to rotate the display on my head to coordinate with the real world. When things are going ugly, North-up is one more opportunity for a mistake.

I prefer to run my radar and GPS independent of one another. The GPS is North up, and the radar is heading up. I don't have any trouble correlating the two, and, in my opinion, it presents each system in its most effective way. On rare occasions, I shift the chart to heading up and match the scale on the two displays, which are side by side. To me, it's clearer than running a radar overlay on a GPS. Note: the radar is presented on an MFD that can also show GPS, which is a nice back-up to the stand alone GPS, or it can display two separate screens. I often use it that way, one set for close range and collision avoidance with smaller objects, with the other a greater range for weather, both being radar images.

[sailing_gal]

I can second the recommendation of Burch's book, Radar for Mariners. Excellent reference and learning book. I just installed the newer, solid state B&G radar on my boat. It has 2 settings that can be used simultaneously to see items (like buoys) within 400 feet and the long-range stuff. It does take a bit of practice and learning to get used to it.

All the above recommendations are excellent, basically: practice, practiceractice- in good conditions so you can confirm what you are looking at on the radar with your own eyes. Play with the adjustments until you are comfortable with what they can do and which conditions work best. It is really just a matter of experience. And, remember, that you can navigate rather well with radar once you get good at identifying what you are seeing on the scope.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by boatman1

It’s difficult for me to accept that Brooks & Gatehouse doesn’t have some documentation that identifies and explains the controls well enough that an operator can put it through the paces. As others have said, practice/ play with it before you “need” it. The confirmation that radar provides can be real helpful. I recall one pitch black night coming into Beaufort NC when radar was worth the expense. Because of lights onshore it’s difficult to identify the lighted markers as you’re approaching and entering the inlet. There’s a substantial turn to port as entering: if you miss the turn you’ll soon be on a shoal. Spotting the markers on the radar makes it much safer.

And you can spot marks with RADAR even if their lights are extinguished.

[jimp1234]

The author of the book below is a former Naval Commander turned cruiser, and this book might be described as "Radar 101". He demonstrates a very easy and effective method to compute a CPA which I've used on several ocean passages. He also does radar webinar classes through SCCA.

https://www.made-simplefor-cruisers.com/radar

[Simi 60]

Thanks for the heads up on this

Starpath Demos

My JRC radar has an inch thick manual that has my eyes glazing over.

[Mr B]

Do Radars die of old age,
I have a Furuno Radar, 2002 model, 1712
Bloke in Bundaberg came on board and set it up for me, Supposedly an expert, He did it for a living, It did cost me 50 bucks,
I couldnt make heads or tails of it, It gave out things in front of the boat, Rain I suppose, But a very large ship went past about half a mile behind me and it showed up as a very small dot on the screen,
Most of it just shows small like scratch marks, In the end, I just turned it off,
I also have the manual for it, Most of it is Mumbo Jumbo to me,

[a64pilot]

I believe that magnetrons do degrade due to age, or at least hours of use.
However I think it’s thousands of hours of use.

I think but do not use this as it’s just off of memory, but about 3000 hours of use one is losing power.
Now that’s old memory and may not be true for Modern Radars.
I believe some machines track hours of use, pretty sure our old JRC that had its own display when I was a kid did anyway.
I have no idea about the newer non magnetron Radars.

What happened to JRC anyway, they used to be good equipment?

Target size is due to reflected energy, which is usually Radar cross section, but very often due to the angle of a ships hull etc., what you would think would be a huge target, isn’t due to its hull is at an angle so that much of the return pulse is deflected away.

A lot of it is interpretation, and a lot of it is getting the level and gain correct and understanding the settings, modern ones seem to have a lot of preprogrammed settings, things like sea state which I believe may be just turning the gain down, but now that Radar is processed, maybe it’s different processing?
I’d have to look, but I think maybe my B&G may only have a gain setting.
Think of gain as sensitivity.

[refuge]

One thing i always teach new Mates is to keep the radar on short range. This is on commercial freighters where we have two ARPA radars, but if we only had one and visibility is nill, you will see much more on short range.

Even commercial radars on let’s say a 12 mile range are either not going to pick up very much or not display it very well. Radar is primarily for collision avoidance, particularly with other small boats.

Keep your radar under 6 miles or less and refer to it frequently especially if your speed is up. Erase all the range rings and other clutter. Tune down your sea and rain settings but keep the screen clear. Not too much gain.

On my sailboat I keep the radar at a 3 mile range. I can pick up seagulls that way. Ships and land should be monitored using other means than long range radar.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

What happened to JRC anyway, they used to be good equipment?
.

Still around


Marine | JRC(Japan Radio Co., Ltd.)

We have a JRC radar
This one

http://www.jrc.co.jp/eng/product/lin...mk2/index.html

[a64pilot]

Range wise, it depends on what your using it for.
I often have mine at 24 or 36 miles, because I’m looking for squalls.
I don’t know if this is true or not, but I was always told with the magnetron types, if I turned it on, leave it on, at least in standby, don’t be turning it on and off as that reduces the magnetrons life.
The new solid state FMCW ones I believe you can turn off, but they draw so little power just leave it on.
I still can’t believe that my 4G transmits less power than a cell phone.

[Paul L]

If we are in a tough traffic area with lots of boats without AIS I will use the dual range mode of our Furuno radar. One side of the screen at 1.5 miles, the other at 4-6 miles. The radar setting are independent, so I can set sea state low on the close in to detect small objects, while the longer range can be set for best clarity.

[CatNewBee]

We use it a lot and it works great. Raimarine 4kw HD color radome.

[CaptFarmer]

Another option to learn Radar basics is to locate your nearest America's Boating Club (formally United States Power Squadron) and ask them to present our Radar seminar.
Go to https://americasboatingclub.org/find...local-squadron . From there, like others have said, practice in daylight and practice more. Your Radar should be on any time you are underway. We use Simrad/Loran here and set Gain and Sea Clutter to "Auto" and Rain Clutter to 0 until needed, most of the time. I also use heading up and "look ahead/origin offset" mode to see more of what is in front of me.

[landonshaw]

Was the Starpath book Radar for Mariners?