Insatalling new 4G Simrad Radar this weekend , advice?

[ColdEH]

Hi every one .

Just pulling my new Simrad 4G radar out of the box and about to install it . I am using Simrad NSS series MFDs . Looks like a very straight forward operation but I thought I would put it out there if anyone has discovered any Gremlins in the setup .

Regards

[sailjumanji]

B&G 4G radar was absolutely plug and play with my Zeus2 chartplotter. Just followed instructions.

[ColdEH]

Thought as much .

Thanks for the reply . How are you liking the gear ?

Regards


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[a64pilot]

Not nearly as easy as a Garmin, but not all that hard either, not familiar with the MFD's, but install the Gofree too, it's worth it. I just have a Zeus T7 is all.

[ColdEH]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Not nearly as easy as a Garmin, but not all that hard either, not familiar with the MFD's, but install the Gofree too, it's worth it. I just have a Zeus T7 is all.

Zeus T7 , same as my Simrad Nss 7 and 8 MFDs Multifunction Display .

Very happy with the gear. I have the Gofree as well, handy item.

Looking forward to the Radar, I took out an old Furuno that I could never read , I think its a black art, reading those old radars .

Regards

[a64pilot]

The old Radars did require a little experience getting the gain right.
Newer ones have a lot of adjustments that I wish I knew what was really going on, like sea state and rain? We adjusting gain I'm sure, but there is more than that going on.
But put them in Auto and they work pretty good, the 4G wasn't what I had hoped for, I hoped for an evolutionary step up from My old Garmin HD, and it isn't, not to me, really not much difference from my perspective, certainly not revolutionary.
I hope though that being solid state that it will be more trouble free and longer lasting.
The claim of a lower RF output than a cell phone fascinates me, if that is true, then it really is an astonishingly low power Radar, I wonder how well it's detected?

[ColdEH]

Hey Pilot.
Thanks for the review.

Where do you have it mounted ? If up the mast do you still get the close up returns when they are just off the boat ?

I will be using it mostly for collision avoidance when night sailing , or fog . Lots of little fishing boats up here on the lakes with no lights , Makes me crazy

Regards

[a64pilot]

Mine is on a pole, I called Simrad and talked to the techs, their advice was no difference in performance, but much easier to do any work on it if it ever need it if it was on a pole.

The other night I was stopped by the USCG in one of their small boats, not so small actually but what struck me after the left was that they didn't set off the guard alarm, waves were pretty sporty, surprised they were out and I'm sure that they aren't "Stealthy", so why didn't the Radar pick them up? I assume the were hidden in the sea state?
I see posts all the time about birds and crab trap floats showing up, but I haven't seen anything like that, but I've not played with it in dead calm water either, usually it's off except at night and bad weather.
It is fantastic for tracking storm cells though, ones with rain anyway show up really well, even up to max range, which is substantial as well

[ColdEH]

Really . !!! I hope I get better results . These things aren't cheap . All the you tube vids show great results even from non sponsored users . Maybe you should get yours checked .

I will post back next week with my review of this "revolutionary technology "

Regards


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[Paul L]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Mine is on a pole, I called Simrad and talked to the techs, their advice was no difference in performance, but much easier to do any work on it if it ever need it if it was on a pole.

The other night I was stopped by the USCG in one of their small boats, not so small actually but what struck me after the left was that they didn't set off the guard alarm, waves were pretty sporty, surprised they were out and I'm sure that they aren't "Stealthy", so why didn't the Radar pick them up? I assume the were hidden in the sea state?
I see posts all the time about birds and crab trap floats showing up, but I haven't seen anything like that, but I've not played with it in dead calm water either, usually it's off except at night and bad weather.
It is fantastic for tracking storm cells though, ones with rain anyway show up really well, even up to max range, which is substantial as well

The posts seeing birds and floats are probably for larger radars. Yours is a 19in with 5.2* horizontal resolution. A 24in radar would bring that down to 3.9*. It makes a lot of difference for small targets. Go to a 48in arrays and it goes to 1.9*.

[Neptune's Gear]

Interesting A64, no way a boat should be able to get thru your guard zone! You are absolutely sure it was on I guess? If so, I'd advise you to get the radar tested by an authorised Navico service agent.

I had a 3G that stopped seeing targets over a period, to the point where it was totally useless eventually. I've just replaced it. It will see a fibreglass kayak, even in choppy conditions, at a few hundred meters. I've never had a vessel of any description get thru the guard zone when the radars working properly, using auto gain, and zone from 1/4 mile to 4 nm circle.
These are great units. The replacement is also 3G. Slightly lower power requirements than a 4g, and I don't need the dual range etc of the 4 g...

Oh, and mine is on a gimballed mount on the back stay. An exception to the above is that if you are well heeled over, the radar is seeing the water on one side, and the sky on the other. It must be fairly level ( iirc about a 15 deg angle is all they have) to see all around you well. Other radars are similar in this regard. So, if you were well heeled over, and the boat left roughly abeam of you, your fixed pole mount and heel COULD account for the problem? If not see above and get it checked.


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[a64pilot]

Yes I am sure, he came and went without triggering the alarm, but wave were 5 to 6 ft as a guess, as I said, I'm surprised he was out there, he was within 100" or so of me at the Starboard quarter and I never knew he was there until he hit his lights


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[sailjumanji]

I've never owned a radar before, but have been on boats with older units. The 4G did very well offshore Louisiana showing wellhead platforms - several of which were unlit. Coming into Port Saint Joe, Florida at night, the tops of the marker pilings showed up nicely on radar. Those were 12 inch pilings? That was something quite neat as the pilings in many places that had no lights, and sometimes missing marker boards, would show up on the radar. And cool to see how the radar positions compared to the electronic chart positions.

Was great in fog when we were coming thru ICW in Louisiana, when all of the barges were stopped because of low visibility, and we could still make way.

We also used it to track rain storms. Luckily there were not many of those, but there was a difference in color of the light rain clouds vs the really heavy stuff. Didn't get much of a chance to play with the tuning.

Our trip earlier this year was from Orange Beach, Alabama, to Exumas, Georgetown, and then back to Kemah, Texas. Coming back, we took straight route from Ft Myers to Grand Isle, Louisiana. That was pretty clear of platforms, etc. From Grand Isle thru Port Fouchon is littered with small wellhead platforms and other hazards to navigation. As you get closer to Texas, there are fewer. But no way would I have done this section of the trip without radar.

No issues whatsoever with the radar. My B&G Zeus2 still occasionally powers down and restarts for no apparent reason. Have done a soft restart as per B&G suggestion, but still does it. Probably once every three days of use, but can be at bad times. Next step is recommended hard restart that I didn't quite understand procedure from B&G tech, but first I have to save all of my waypoints and routes. After that, I will call them back and get more precise directions. I hope it fixes it as there are times at night that I really don't want to wait the 3-4 minutes for the thing to power back up, reload chart, etc.

[ColdEH]

Excellent ! Thanks for the review . These are the results I'm hoping for . A64pilot you should have yours looked at .

Regards


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[NahanniV]

I also had a US Coastguard RIB approach without any RADAR target on my 4G.

It was about 20' with three officers aboard in fairly calm conditions.

The only indication I had was the sound of engines, and occasional interference on the RADAR display, I assume was from their RADAR.

Otherwise the 4G works very well.

If you have a computer on board, you may want to try out OpenCPN with the Navico RADAR plugin.

Cheers,
JM.