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Chartplotters, Radars and More... (Click Here to Enter the Chartplotters, Radars and More...Store at anytime) HF Radio On Board is a full-line Furuno marine electronics dealer. The name Furuno is synonymous with quality and reliability as well as ease of use. Just go to a commercial fishing dock. Look at a US Coast Guard vessel. What is the name on the radar antenna? Check out this report from PowerBoat Reports. We decided to take on the Furuno line and enter the field of radars and plotters for a couple of additional reasons. Early in 2002, the price of chart cartridges dropped about 80% - really - the price for a cartridge didn't change that much - it was that the now covered about 5 times as much area as before. Now chart plotters made more sense for our cruising customers. About the same time, Furuno introduced the NavNet series of radars and plotters. We were impressed with the fact that unlike the other major company in the business, Furuno uses standard off-the-shelf technology - Ethernet - just like we use in a computer network - to link their displays and peripherals together. While at this time, it only works with other Furuno equipment (except for the Fax - 5), this made sense to us since it was a proven standard and not some unique system. We could see into the future that eventually, it would integrate with the PC and when it did, it would be a simple and reliable connection. Now it will be possible - when Furuno releases version 12 of MaxSea navigation software this spring. We hope to do with Furuno NavNet what we did with SSB - make it simple and easy to install by the end user. Of course, we also sell the non-NavNet products too - just e-mail us if you don't see it here. We'll be happy to give you a quote. NEW!!! - Furuno NavNet vx2
The first decision when it comes to radar is how powerful a unit do we need? Generally, recreational radars are in 4 categories, with the 18" dome (or enclosed antenna) 2.2 KW, 24 mile radar and the 24" dome 4 KW, 36 mile probably being the most popular. "But where I am mounting the antenna, when I do the math for the distance to the horizon, the horizon is less then 24 miles away. Why do I want a 36 (or longer) range radar?" That's an easy one. Because of the higher power (and even though it is higher power, the actual load on your electrical system is not much different) a 36 mile radar can resolve a target at 8 miles much better and easier then a 24 mile unit. Open array antennas (the type you typically see on larger vessels spinning around) are even better at resolution because they are bigger - the 2.2 KW is 2' and the 4 KW is 3.5'. Bigger truly is better in this case. But open array antennas are usually not practical on anything but large sailboats and power craft. There is also a perception - write or wrong - that there is a reliability issue with an open array. Also - motor and gearbox noise from an open array tends to be greater. As far as power consumption, the difference is NOT very significant between 2.2 and 4 KW, open or enclosed antenna. So... for a typical cruising vessel, probably a 24" 4KW 36 miles is the best choice. Okay, now that we have that out of the way, lets look at the display. We feel color is the best choice as it can make it easier to resolve the image. But more importantly, with the addition of position information from a GPS, and a chart cartridge for the waters we are cruising, we now have a color chart plotter. Add heading information (from an electronic compass - not to be confused with course information from a GPS) and we now have the ability to overlay the radar image on the chart - which can ONLY be done with a color display. That REALLY makes it easier to tell boats from buoys or find the entrance to the harbor on the radar. The monochrome displays can function as a radar and a plotter, and you can run them in the split screen mode and see both at the same time, but you CAN'T overlay the radar on the chart. So... color display. Now what size display? The new 7" 480 x 640 pixel color display introduced early in 2004 is a great improvement over the previous version. The image is crisper and brighter then before. Certainly a good choice as a primary display on a smaller vessel or as a display in the cockpit on a larger vessel if that is desired. There is no reason that they both couldn't be 7" displays - or even for budgetary reasons, one color and one monochrome. But there is a significant difference in the 10.4 color display in addition to just having more real-estate to display a greater area for a given range. With the inputs we have so far - position and heading - and the addition of a board inside the 10.4" display we can also have the benefit of ARP - Automatic Radar Plotting. When ARP is present, you can manually or automatically acquire and track 10 targets. I don't know about you, but I find tracking 10, 5 or even 1 target and determining its course and speed can be a chore, let alone trying to determine how close you are going to come to the other vessel (CPA or Closest Point of Approach) and how long it will be to when that occurs (TCPA or Time of CPA). Especially when short handed or in marginal conditions. With the radar antenna hooked up to such a display configuration, you can also have ARP on a 7" display that is part of that system. So OUR ideal system would be a 10.4" Navnet 4KW 36 mile color radar/plotter (1833C) with the ARP option (ARP11 Auto-plotter board) down below, receiving heading information from a PG1000 digital heading sensor (reputed to be the BEST electronic heading sensor on the market) and a 7" in the form of a GP1710C WAAS/GPS Plotter that includes the BBWGPS GPS antenna (or the equivalent in a 10.4" display - GP1900C). For an additional level of redundancy, we would also include either a GP32 or GP37 stand alone GPS as a primary GPS input (even though we already have the BBWGPS - the 7" display is only available with it and the 10.4" FMD1900C display only is actually MORE expensive then the GP1900C). In addition to redundancy, it also allows us to use the GPS by itself without having to run the radar/plotter unless the situation warrants it - thereby saving precious electricity. OK - so let's add it up... 1834C/NT (or 1834C) $3979 ARP11/PG500 $959 1720C/NT (or 1720C) $1869 GP32 $309 System price $7116* *additional interconnecting cables will likely be required - but they will not impact the bottom line significantly. Additionally, when the system has more then two NavNet or NavNet vx2 devices (i.e.: 2 displays and a BBFF1) then an Ethernet Hub is required. See the Furuno NavNet vx2 Brochure NavNet Brochure . Another useful document is the NavNet Quick Reference Yes - a lot of money. But that's a lot of navigational power too. There are some other options available in the 10.4" display. Like the ability to input a composite video signal from a video camera or other video source ($238) or to output the display to a VGA monitor ($40). Furuno also introduced the "Black Box" series - essentially - a 18xx or 19xx series radar/plotter without the 10.4" display (about $400 less then the same unit with a display) to be hooked up to any display capable of displaying a VGA image. All NavNet radar/plotters can be hooked up to either one of Furuno's "Smart Sensor" Depth transducers and display depth and if desired, temperature as well. Or you can add the BBFF1 or BBFF3 Black Box fish-finder and have a fish finder as well as depth, temperature and even speed, with the appropriate transducer. One other thing bears mentioning - the chart cartridges used in the NavNet and other Furuno products. You have a choice of either C-Map NT or Navionics cartography. Keep in mind that the CARTOGRAPHY (data) is either C-Map or Navionics - but the actual CARTRIDGE is unique to Furuno - so if you have a plotter now that uses C-Map or Navionics cartridges, but it is NOT a Furuno - you will not be able to use them on the Furuno. Which is best - C-map or Navionics? That is a "that depends" question that is probably best addressed to my business associate Marilee at Waypoint. Enter the Chartplotters, Radars and More...Store
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