RIB Friendly Radar

[Biggles]

Does a RIB friendly Radar exist. I mean something that is going to be of use to your average RIB owner on an existing setup. Is their a Radar transmitter out there that will fit on an average A Frame, not fry your brains out, work well and be a reasonable price. By reasonable price I mean a price that is comaprable to a decent chart plotter.

I would like a Radar but i'm put off by cost and health factors.

NR.

[Simon B]

Checkout the Raymarine intergrated stuff, RIBS are short on space and a stand alone would be yet another screen or gizzmo to accomodate. Much as I dislike complexity their intergrated modular/add on systems look very impressive, its already been installed on my virtual rib!

Sadly Raymarine appear to believe no one else except the united states are interested in weather! Though this may change I hope.

[codprawn]

There is no radar that is totally safe to stick your head in front of by the very nature of the way they operate. Having said that the risk is very small but one that should be avoided.

Instead of an A frame why not have a frame on the console - could also double up as a bimini cover. Some RIBs look quite good with this sort of setup.

As to cost the very cheapest way is to buy something like a monochrome JRC or similar.

Having said that with the cost of FLIR coming down so much I am seriously thinking of going down that road instead.

[chris123]

At the risk of stating the obvious, I don't think you can really compare radar with thermal imaging.

Whilst thermal imaging is great at short range in clear conditions with a limited field of view (unless you go for a pan tilt system and can devote the time to maintain a 360° watch), radar will have better range and will work in heavy rain / fog giving you a view of everything that is going on around you (provided you have the training / experience to read and interpret it).

Cheers

Chris

[Biggles]

So is there a RADAR transmitter that you can stick in front of you on the RIB that doesn't emit to the rear. Lets face it your mainly interested in what is in front of you on a fast RIB. If the transmitter was shielded at the rear you could mount it on the consol which would mean the people on board would be safe from emissions. Just an idea.

[peterb]

The trouble with shielding it at the rear is that its likely to screw up the operation of the unit in all directions.

I am no radar expert (nor anything else come to that) but a mate of mine had a nice new radar which failed to work correctly. When I looked at it - his reflector was in line with the dome and about 3 feet behind it.

A quick call to the manufacturers help line confirmed that this was a non-starter. Remounting the reflector above the dome solved the problem.

[Biggles]

Being at the front and forward facing only i would hope to avoid any reaction from A Frames or reflectors.
I would be worried about what it could actually see though as it would be quite low.
Maybe Codders idea of fitting one on a frame over the consol is the way to go. A simple S/S tube fitted to my Consol screen would be the way for me to go.

[Biggles]

I see JGTech has this item for £899.

http://www.boatersland.com/fur1623.html

Adverts for these Radars are difficult to follow. I can't work out if you get everything for this price or if the antenna is more money.

I also can't work out how the antenna fits and what size it is etc.

NR.

[Biggles]

Here's a link to the manuals for the 1623

http://www.furuno.com/Furuno/Rooms/D....entity.Entity[OID[5B0AC100D8DB194E8E11236279F60AAF]]&Product=com.webridge.entity.Entity[OID[29DA439D1530FB4CBF62E117CA6378C8]]&ProductCategory=com.webridge.entity.Entity[OID[07860AE52FC370459BC6725E87CAE5DB]]&Tab=com.webridge.entity.Entity[OID[610B2768C391FB40A6D1D849554A5C1A]]

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by chris123

At the risk of stating the obvious, I don't think you can really compare radar with thermal imaging.

Whilst thermal imaging is great at short range in clear conditions with a limited field of view (unless you go for a pan tilt system and can devote the time to maintain a 360° watch), radar will have better range and will work in heavy rain / fog giving you a view of everything that is going on around you (provided you have the training / experience to read and interpret it).

Cheers

Chris

I was thinking more of FLIR goggles or helmet cam. As to range you don't get much of a range on a RIB anyway as you are so low down.

FLIR will see through fog to a certain extent and is awesome at night of course. I think it would get used FAR more than RADAR!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7zA1cVH7xk