Posted by ron barr (rwhb@…>)
TACAN eh? You must have been “flying”….51st Fighter
Wing? Have you been back to Korea?
Ron
From:
FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com [mailto:FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of george huffman
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 6:21 PM
To: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [FreedomOwnersGroup] Re: Radar
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Well… I have used RDF also so I suppose this gives my age a little
(although I was a minor) in the great lakes and I think the Smithsonian
is probably looking for one of the first depth sounders I used… heh heh
I never used Consolan but I did use Tacan to find my way back to Osan AB a few
times… but that was a different life.
George
ron barr <rwhb@…> wrote:
Some of it
George has, I think, to do with how long one has been at this game. I grew up
with log lines, flashing depth sounders, RDF and listening to the dots and
dashes from Nantucket’s Consolan station. Thus I take electronic gadgetry with
caution. My first so called radar was a Whistler and I’ll bet most of the
people on this group probably have never heard of it J . However modern radar and GPS
are wonderful inventions and I wouldn’t be without them, and I love plotters.
There are days when I miss the stimulation of fighting the cloud cover for a
three star fix when closing a landfall – but they are very few and far
between!
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Integrate GPS
with the autopilot? No way.
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Ron Barr
82 Bridge Street
Newport RI 02840
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From: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com [mailto:FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of george huffman
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 5:19 PM
To: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [FreedomOwnersGroup] Re: Radar
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Pretty much Ron,
I like simple systems and I use paper back ups. I don’t have problems
figuring out which is the bridge and which is the tanker. Marpa has it’s
uses but AIS is pretty awesome. But I want that information on it’s own
display also so I’ll go with the AIS “radar” instead of black boxing
and networking it. I also don’t integrate the GPS to the autopilot.
I watch what’s going on and if I begin to drift then I correct course.
Knowing I’ve encountered some current is good information to have too.
But this is me and there are as many ways to get from point a to b as their are
sailors I imagine.
George
ron barr <rwhb@…> wrote:
If I understand
you correctly George – I am in the same corner. It seems a mistake to me, in
pleasure boating, to integrate systems too closely unless one has a
complete back up as one would on a larger merchant vessel.
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Ron
Newport RI
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From: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com [mailto:FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of George Huffman
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 11:36 AM
To: FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [FreedomOwnersGroup] Re: Radar
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Regarding radar/chartplotter combinations and speaking as
someone who
has installed perhaps a forty to fifty of them and also used them
extensively in a wide range of environments and platforms… I still
prefer the stand alone units as I described in an earlier post. I had
the budget to do it any way I liked on our new (to us) F-40 CC CK and
I chose to do it that way.
Of course there is room for all kinds of individual choice here. I
can only say what I’ve decided on as better for me. I wouldn’t like,
however, to be categorized as someone who hasn’t used a chart plotter
with radar overlay. I’m quite on the other end of that spectrum.
George
— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com,
“Geoffrey Schultz”
<geoff.freedom@…> wrote:
— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com,
“ron barr” <rwhb@> wrote:
IMHO combining radars and plotters is not always the best idea -
especially on a sailboat when screens tend to be 7" or smaller.
On
top of which it is too many eggs in one basket.
I’ll completely disagree with this statement. I’d say it’s by someone
who hasn’t used one. So far I’ve have a Furuno radar (replaced when
the radome died), a Northstar 961 chart plotter (replaced when the
display head died, but it was a marveleous unit with an outstanding
user interface, but it drew 10A), and now I own a Raymarine C80 which
is used as the chartplotter and radar and a Northstar 6200i which is
used as the backup for the C80. I do most of my cruising in the
Caribbean and getting things fixed down there is very difficult and
time/$ comsuming, and thus the redundancy.
Anyhow, the ability to overlay a radar image on top of a chart is
wonderful. It can make sense of radar images where it may be very
confusing without the chart. You can always shut off the overlay, so
you can view it anyway that you want.
Personally I find MARPA of very limited value. It probably works well
with a stationary radar unit, but on a sailboat in anything less than
calm seas, the calculated course/speed of a target bounces all over the
place.
What is MUCH more useful is an AIS receiver and a chartplotter which
displays the data. I regularly see ships 40+ miles away and the
display shows the CPA (closest point of approach) as well as the name
of the vessel. Believe me, knowing the name of the vessel that you’re
on a collision course with makes all the difference in the world when
you’re trying to hail them. I wouldn’t be without as AIS receiver and
am looking forward to the day when AIS transponders are reasonably
priced.
As far as brands are concerned, I only have experience with NorthStar
and RayMarine combined use systems. The RayMarine integrates nicely
into the rest of my autopilot instruments and the latest versions of
the saftware have improved the usability greatly. I am very
disappointed with the NorthStar unit as the 961 unit that I purchased
in 1998 had much more functionality than the current unit do.
– Geoff
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