RADAR

[jerski]

Now that I have my boat selection made, I am thinking about radar. I am a techno-geek, so radar is kind of exciting! I am seriously interested in the Simrad Halo 20+ it has a low power draw (29w) and a good range (36nm). Does anyone use this radar and if not, what are you using and why?

[IRENE]

We are using a Furuno NXT with the largest antenna we can reasonably fit (4’) and the highest power offered (200w).

Why? Many believe Furuno is the best in the business for recreational RADAR. I am among those many. Furuno support is excellent, and they have a good history of parts support. It is likely there will be software upgrades in the future that may enhance their solid-state product further, which is why we went solid-state over magnetron. We have a mostly Furuno electronics suite, and integration of the Furuno RADAR made the most sense for our situation. I wanted the most powerful model available to increase the probability of avoiding floating objects at night and in the fog. This NXT product is new to us (less than 100 hours) yet we are very pleased with the performance and feature set.

I have installed solid state units from Navico and Raymarine on my prior boats, and both worked very well and were nice to use. So to be clear I am NOT “bashing” other brand's technology.

I think its more important to pick a product that works for your situation, and become an expert using it. Importantly, mount the antenna per the instructions to allow the best performance. Acknowledging there are power consumption concerns on sailing vessels, use the RADAR as much as possible during good weather and daylight so you become intimately familiar with its capabilities and limitations.

[Recy]

Something to have in mind when choosing a radar is that they are often only working with MFD/plotters of the same brand.
Panbo compares some different brands of solid state radars.

https://panbo.com/solid-state-radome...uno-checks-in/

[dlj]

I'm using a Si-Tex T-760 RADAR. I am very happy with it. Very powerful kit. I just spent about two weeks sailing 24/7 up the Canadian Maritime coasts in mostly complete fog and/or night. The unit was indispensable. Excellent performance and not a lot of power draw. Can't tell you exactly how much as I was running full instrumentation throughout that trip.

dj

[George_SD]

For a sailboat with modest powerbank, i would strongly suggest getting a lower-power draw one. If you have plenty of power, then get more powerful one. Although to be honest, anything beyond 10 nautical miles is far enough where it should not be an issue. Yes, range is nice to have, but that's a lot of distance in a slow moving vessel.

[Plumbean]

I just installed a Halo 20+ but have yet to use it for real, and it is my first radar, so can’t be of too much help here. I will say that it integrated instantly and seamlessly with the rest of the my network (all B&G), so installation was a breeze. I wanted the 20+ over the 20 in order to have access to the Doppler technology, which seems to work well just from playing around with it in the harbor. I have a new Zeus S plotter that it is connected to.

[forwardvoyage]

Solid State is going to be power efficient, after that I would take a very good look at not just warranty, take a real good look at after warranty repair policies vs a forklift replacement "policy"

[jerski]

Have you used it to see weather? I think of using radar when I sleep and in squally weather

[Plumbean]

There are various pre-programmed "schemes" you can choose from to adjust the radar for different situations: harbor, offshore, weather and birds. I don't know how much of this lives in the radar and how much is determined by the B&G chartplotter, but it is a nice convenience for someone new to radar. You can achieve the same results by customizing the various features, but this sort of does it for you without having to think about it. Not the best for truly learning how to use a radar, but it is convenient. I have looked at it with the "weather" scheme selected but can't say I have actively used it to track weather (as I mentioned I've only had it two weeks or so and have been slammed at work to boot).

[Briis]

Furuno used to be the market leaser but it seems and others have catched up and offer their own unique function. As said plotter/display must be from the same manufacturer to unleash their true potential. So keep the combo as one-manuf as you can.

I chose Raymarine Quantum 2 (Q24D). chose it mainly for it’s doppler funcion and modern efficient features - it measures your speed relative to surrounding echoes and bam, all objecs coming your way are marked red, all that move away and pose no threats are green. It really cleans up and focuses you on the actual important factors in the otherwise cluttered image of radar echoes.

Weather is superb, I can spot gale or heavy rain clouds coming in 20+ miles away, I know well before to prep and reef (and sometimes with the superb doppler funcion to know if they hit me or I may have a chance to avoid if it’s a local phenomena by adjusting my course a bit).

Unbelievable resolution - could see a very thin iron pole buoy couple of miles away.

Various amplification settings to minimize rougher wave condition echoes that can be annoying on most sensitive radars.

Plus despite it’s already super efficient I discovered a good eco function in settings while sailing and saving power (ie 20 scans and 3 minute pause). Very little to almost no power use then. And alarms easy to set.

New tech and not the cheapest, mind.

[SailingHarmonie]

We recently upgraded our old 3G Broadband radar (which served us well for many years) to a Halo 20+, and LOVE IT.

While the performance of the radar itself is obviously improved, with better target acquisition and better auto tuning. The doppler function which highlights targets moving toward you and downplays those moving away is neat, but doesn't seem to add a lot to our view of the world. The dual range feature is, on the other hand, for us, a game changer for offshore passages.

For interacting with most large ships radar doesn't add a lot since they virtually all have AIS. Radar is a great help with smaller fishing and recreational boats that don't have AIS, but they typically don't show up as a target until just a few miles away, sometimes within a mile for smaller sailboats. Fishing floats, and other "stuff" maybe even closer. On the other hand, looking for squalls we want to have the range out as far as possible.

Our routine offshore MFD setup is now a split screen, with a short range, maybe 5 miles, for small targets with Radar "A" overlaid on a chart. The other half of the screen is Radar "B" in "scope view" out to its full 36 mile range. This shows all our AIS contacts, large ships, and incoming weather. All of which it does very well.

A huge improvement in situational awareness without the need to constantly be shifting ranges all the time.

Not so many years ago, I was agnostic about instrument brands, telling people to pick the one that they most preferred to user interface of. Having done a number of deliveries now of different brands, my opinion has changed. For SAILBOATS, that are being sailed, and by people who want the best information to get the best performance, B&G is the hands down winner. You can put together a premier system (with enough $s) that will trump any of the others. My choice for running a cruising motorboat would different again for a fishing boat.

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by jerski

Now that I have my boat selection made, I am thinking about radar. I am a techno-geek, so radar is kind of exciting! I am seriously interested in the Simrad Halo 20+ it has a low power draw (29w) and a good range (36nm). Does anyone use this radar and if not, what are you using and why?

Not sure what electronic package you will use for nav, but the Halo 20+ works great plugged into the RJ45 port of our RPi using opencpn.

[Pizzazz]

Any recent radar will do great. Solid state has good resolution close by, old pulsed radar has more power to see further for weather. My favorite has always been the Pathfinder system from the 90s. However, today digital is much easier to integrate and share. The pecking order and usefulness of marine electronics is autopilot, chart plotter, AIS, sonar, radar. Start with the autopilot and then add sensors to whatever system your autopilot selected. Depending where you live, you will use autopilot 99% of the time, chart plotter 95%, AIS 90%, sonar 30% of the time, radar 15% of the time. Don't worry too much about the details.

[Mattzilla]

Have the B&G halo20+ which is same unit, only supplied with a longer cable than Simrad (at least here in Australia)
Works great, I use it connected to Toughbook running Open CPN and Expedition. The radar is plugged into wireless router and it just works.
Have used it for tracking storm systems and rain, and at night and in rain to navigate and track fishing vesels not on AIS.

[Gianluca]

Hi, the radar is almost a must to have specially if cruise in foggy weather ie: Maine. Where I have spent over 30 years of cruising. However, at the end of the day, the radar is of little use. I have a B&G Halo+20. Cruising in the Caribbean or Europe, the AIS is the most used equipment. With visibility, no need for the radar.