Radar Alarms

[goboatingnow]

While they both had alarm features, we found that if you set the sensitivity etc up high enough to see small vessels then there were frequent (very frequent in rough wx) false alarms. Never were able to use them to our advantage. Newer and fancier radar sets may indeed be better, but some hands-on experience with a given unit might be worth while before buying!

I fully agree, I have never had good experiences with small boat radar alarm windows, loads of false alarms. You can turn down the gain and youll still detect the big ships, but a fishing trawler still kills you anyway.

dave

[conachair]

Originally Posted by CarlF

While I know some are skeptical about the quality of the large ship watches offshore - my experience is that they will respond quickly to a solid ARPA target.

Thats my experience as well. It's very reassuring to watch them alter course by 10deg on ais to give you some sea room then alter back again once clear. And a good excuse to radio up and say thanks when it's the only thing you've seen for a week Steel boat so good radar return.

[TedElixirNZ]

Have used proximity alarm zones around the coast of NZ since 1982 and recently down the coast of Portugal and through to Gibralter, the latter in heavy fog. There is no way I would wnat to go through those waters without it. When coastal zones can be set off the land so not going off from land contact and strating 1/4 mile away from yacht as to not trigger from scatter. See Elixir NZ - Kinsale (Ireland) to Baiona (Spain), Gibralter 2007 | Elixir of New Zealand