radar repair

[Hampus]

Mule has a good way of doing it.

If you bring your CRT to a technitian he can test it but you should bring the entire radar. I'm a marine electronics technitian myself and 8 times out of 10, the customer only brings the BDE (below deck equipment) for testing. Just as often, 8 times of 10, the error is in the cable or the antenna, which makes perfect sense. Cable and antenna are exposed to temperature fluctuations, salt, water, wind, sunlight, birds and all kinds of mechanical wear. The BDE is often mounted in a warm and cosy place and seldom breaks down. So, having just the BDE tested is like having a bad engine in the car and only bringing the carburetor to the mechanic.

[Jentine]

The unit is 13 years old and the cost of repair is greater than the value of the unit. There have been great improvements in the radar world in a few short years like broadband. Get rid of the old thing and buy one that will last for another 13 years.

[Charlie]

I just want to find out if there is something simple and/or inexpensive to fix the radar. It worked fine last time Itried it a couple of months ago. It may be 13 years old but it doesn't have much time on it. There other ways I'd rather spend a couple of boat bucks.

[Hampus]

Charlie!
It's most likely an easy fix and it's well worth a couple of $100 to have it fixed. Especially considering what you'd have to pay for a new one. If you don't use the RADAR a lot, and from the hours you stated, you don't there really is no point in buying a new one, spending $2000. Most marine electronics companies won't charge anything for testing it if it turns out that it's impossible to repair, and you buy a new one from them. They are also likely to give you a discount on the new unit if you hand in the old one. They sell it as spare parts or use it to repair other radars. You have nothing to loose from having it checked.

Best of luck!

/Hampus

[GordMay]

Cable Continuity:
To perform a continuity test on a cable, set the multimeter to test the lowest possible ohm scale (Rx1) and work your way up. Attach the test probes to matching wires (or connector pins) within a cable, and the resistance will drop to near zero if the cable is good, or towards infinity if it is open.

When the probes are disconnected from the cable, the multimeter will display infinite (high) resistance. On an analog meter, the pointer will remain on the peg at the left end of the scale. There will normally be an infinity symbol at this end of the scale. (On a digital multimeter, infinite resistance is often indicated by the numeral 1 without a decimal.)

[Charlie]

Thanks Gord:

The probes on my Ohm meter are too big to fit in the connector pins. I Was thinking of using a paper clip and sticking it in the connector and then testing thatThe other thing that would be difficult would be to figure out which pins on one end match with the pins on the other end. I'll have to try though. The radar doesn't have very many hours. It would be easier if I could borrow a cable that I knew to be working and just plug that in in between the CRT and the magnetron.

[rexposeidon]

that should be fairly easy to obtain. what you would need is a megger to properly test the cable, an Ohm meter might read falsely. IMHO it would be worth the $100 to call out a pro to test everything and then fix/replace yourself if possible.