Radar- Broadband v Conventional

[Pikey Dave]

Interesting reading

[Dr Doof]

I found mine very easy to set up and use, usually overlay on chart as you suggested.

Really useful at night.

[Channel Ribs]

"Broadband radar
The manufacturers of the new Broadband Radar claim it has many benefits over conventional radar including; low power, low radiation emission, no radar warm up time, clearer picture and little tuning required.

How it works
Broadband radar is a generic term for Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) which is a new way to achieve radar signals. The ‘Broadband’ tag comes from the broad band of frequency it uses to interrogate a target. In fact FMCW compares changes in frequency between the transmitted and received signals to calculate range, instead of the conventional system of timing the interval between outgoing and returning signals.

Drawbacks

Range:
Overall range is lower than conventional radar. FMCW effective range is about 16 miles, whilst it states 24 miles with reduced performance. However, as radar range is governed by ‘line of sight’, most small craft can only ‘see’ 10 -15 miles anyway, unless they are looking at high ground.

SARTs, RACONs and Radar Target Enhancers:
The low power FTCW pulse may not trigger a RACON (RAdar beaCON), SART (Search And Rescue Transponder) or even the active radar transponders which are increasingly fitted to leisure boats.

Conclusion:
FMTC radar is a major break though in marine radar. It has many advantages over conventional radar and a few disadvantages. It is early days for FMCW in the marine world although it has been used for some time in air, land and military applications."

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by RYA

The low power FTCW pulse may not trigger a RACON (RAdar beaCON), SART (Search And Rescue Transponder) or even the active radar transponders which are increasingly fitted to leisure boats.

The active reflectors is probably not a problem for leisure boaters, since small stuff is looking for big stuff and the big stuff will have conventional radar.

Not being able to pick up racon or sart is a nuisance though, and to my mind the only real disadvantages for the RIB owner.

[Poly]

Originally Posted by Channel Ribs

The active reflectors is probably not a problem for leisure boaters, since small stuff is looking for big stuff and the big stuff will have conventional radar.

If I was spending £500 on an active reflector I'd want to show up on everyone's radar, not just big ships, and the comment at the end of the conclusions seems to suggest that it could be found on big ships in the future?

If I were spending £2000 on a radar I'd not only want to see commercial ships (which I could do by spending a few hundred on AIS) but also leisure traffic, so I don't run down any yachts etc - who have actually made the investment in an active reflector and think they are highly visible...

It would be interesting to know if this is a "just wont see" or "occasionally might not see at the same range"

Not being able to pick up racon or sart is a nuisance though, and to my mind the only real disadvantages for the RIB owner.

I'd say that's less of a problem. Unless you are routinely involved in rescue work then SARTs are probably an irrelevance (nobody is spending a couple of grand on the off chance they might pick up someone else's SART). Racon's might be useful but if you know they won't show up, then in a world with GPS and Chartplotters (and probably a lot of Racon locations getting AIS) then are they not a bit of an "old fashioned" idea anyway?

[BogMonster]

Originally Posted by Polwart

If I were spending £2000 on a radar I'd not only want to see commercial ships (which I could do by spending a few hundred on AIS) but also leisure traffic, so I don't run down any yachts etc - who have actually made the investment in an active reflector and think they are highly visible...

I think the point with the BB radar is that the image is much clearer - so a yacht (and going on the writeup I saw, probably even a small dinghy / large buoy) will show up clearly whereas it would not on a conventional radar, so you don't really need to trigger an active reflector to see what it's attached to?