This allows differentiation of targets close together, particularly those close to the scanner. It works well beyond expectation. Within less than a mile, the 4G radar showed that big targets on our 3G radar, were in fact two or more individual boats in the mooring field. At distances closer than yards, performance is about the same, but beyond that, there is no comparison: The 4G systems meets all claims for its performance. Another of the 4Gs features is its ability to show a split-screen image, with one screen at one range and the other at longer range.
This gives you an ability to see targets close at hand within yards , while simultaneously monitoring activity at 4 nautical miles. PS was unable to test this function as it is not available on the NSS7 display. However, we were able to use this on another boat, and it worked as advertised. In our view, both the 3G and 4G, with the scanner mounted at 20 feet above sea level, offer adequate protection against ship collision. Likewise, the detection range, even of a low coastline, is adequate for most navigational situations that a skipper might encounter.
However, we do regard the advertised range of these units to be optimistic. Based on our test results, you are as likely to target a commercial vessel at 30 nautical miles with the 3G radar as you are with the 4G.
It might flash up more frequently or clearly with the 4G, but it will still be there on the 3G. There may be slight improvements in the detection of land features, but wed gauge it at only 10 to 20 percent.
Along with improved reliability at the longer range, the other technical innovation PS would like to see would be a sweep-and-sleep function. This would allow the unit to be left on and sweep at a user-set interval, say every 10 minutes, switching on full-time when a target is detected.
If the target came within a preset guard zone, an alarm could sound and the unit switched to permanent display. Such a feature would also allow the unit to identify a blinking target at very long range when the watchstander might not see it. In our view, broadband should not be looked at as a competitor to pulse radar but a new way to meet the needs of the modern sailor.
In terms of long-range target identification, broadband simply does not yet compete with pulse radar. If you need clarity and certainty at 24 nautical miles and further, buy pulse radar.
If you can accept target identification at 12 to 15 nautical miles, desire low power usage, prefer instant on, and see advantages in short-range definition, then the choice, without any shadow of a doubt, would be broadband. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help. Privacy Policy. Create an account. Password recovery. Practical Sailor. Life Jackets for Active, Racing Sailors.
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This not only aids in providing definition to the target, it enables separation at close quarters, when the traditional pulse radar goes blind. The Simrad Broadband Radar provides exclusive and unmatched dual range functionality making them the only recreational radar capable of displaying distance between feet to 36 nautical miles from a single dome.
This navigational safety tool allows people in the vessel to see feet away on the multifunction display, while simultaneously monitoring coastal projections that may be up to 36 nautical miles. Additionally, the 4G model can even track up to 10MARPA targets per range, each with independent control for a total of 20 tracked targets in the split screen mode.
To enable optimal target separation, this device uses dome radar to use beam sharpening, which thereby significantly improves the azimuth resolution, which is the effective horizontal beam width of the signal of the radar. This results in resolution that is equivalent to an open array, 3. When this is combines with the Simrad NSE or NSO unit, the systems user-defined, target separation control allows you to adjust the level of separation to meet specific navigational needs.
Low cost of entry is the key to innovation. Many of those who have the money to spend would like the flexibility of having both options and will pay a reasonable price for all the bells and whistles. Yes, there will be those in the middle who can afford it but decide not to buy the MFD, but you get Radar and possibly instrument, autopilot, or other sales out of it.
In fact, I will be bold enough to predict that the first big manufacturer to come out with a truly flexible and reasonably priced solution for third party integration with their entire product line will gain significant market share and increase MFD sales as well as total sales. So, I challenge you marine electronics industry, look at other industries, look at other business models, be willing to go into uncharted territory and innovate.
It would be completely superfluous anyway. At home and at work, it sits in a docking station with a regular keyboard and an external display. It provides touch functionality to the laptop via a remote control software shareware for Windows CE. Last fall we got into a hailstorm that caused the mouse pointer to jump around crazy because of hail hitting the touchscreen but the Panasonic is mounted on a RAM arm and I just tilted it straight up until the hail had passed.
With Coastal Explorer I get to use the best quality charts that exist for my area and they are updated once a month by running a simple setup routine, all for the price of EUR per season. When we take that long sailing trip I can buy the best, most current electronic charts of any area that we get to. I could and maybe will buy licenses for seaPro and Exepdition and are you aware of any chart format that is not supported by at least one of these? So tell me, what would I want with an MFD?
Do you know if the issues of interference from other radars have been solved on the broadband radar? Having worked managing development of drivers for process control equipment in the last 30 years I saw the following: Modbus which Modicon wisely decided would be an open standard is still a popular standard 30 years later.
Folks got tired of proprietary interfaces and made this well known, hence the OPC standard arrived. We were forced to reverse engineer many communications protocols which in some cases had the protocol owners publish their protocols or quietly cooperate with us for fear that we would leak what we learned. In my and others opinion, if you buy a device which includes the means to communicate with other devices which are separate products, then you have purchased the use of the means of communication as part of your product purchase.
If the vendor does not publish the protocol then in order to use what you have paid for, you are justified to reverse engineer the protocol. So, lets do the vendors a favor, reverse engineer or bypass their locks and show them that it will increase their sales. Jack — Nearly agree! If a company keeps the communication format etc, hidden then that tends to be their loss.
And I still think that the big question — yet unanswered as far as I can tell — is whether Navico will drop or radically cut that unlock fee for vessels that also install a Navico MFD. Although would be cool if to have the radar overlay on Expedition as well, the current pricing is a bit steep to be used as an emergency backup only….
Yes, it mostly goes to purchase the Navico licence as discussed above. After Paypal and bank charges, I almost break even so am hoping not to sell thousands of these just yet. I have also bought a used but like new CF for the same purpose, but I am having a problem getting it to work with my WiFi setup. I have configured the Wifi correctly, and flashed the RAM, but when I turn on the tablet, sometimes it will connect to my router and somtimes it will not.
Have you seen this problem at all? Do you have any idea how to fix it? I will call Panasonic, but wanted to see if you ran into this first. Thanks, Tim email: [email protected]. I also had many more problems with WLAN and the CF as soon as I activated any from of privacy, even the most basic and I tried with a current lenovo laptop and two different access points.
After close to two days of fiddling I gave up and changed to wired ethernet which has served me reasonably well but was of course a significant install taking another two days. In my opinion this device is not for boats: — The power and ethernet connectors are not waterproof when in use. I stripped the cover off the ethernet connector, put three layers of glued heatshrink tubing over it and sealed everything into the device with a generous amount of Sikaflex.
I also sealed the power connector. I guess this voided my warranty but there was no other way. This has worked for two seasons and a half but now there is condensation appearing inside the unit, under the not bonded display. This is even so I left it outside for only three or so nights. Do not underestimate the marine environment. I have often wiped salt off it form spray going clear over a 45ft sailboat.
Many of the screws have rusted to blobs as they were crome plated steel. The CF has all kinds of openings with seals probably totalling over a foot of seal length and the seals are weak. We had a false start in December when we first saw the PC charting program Expedition interfaced to a Navico BR24 radar , but as of last night this interesting possibility, and many like it, seem to be official.
Read the full press release here. I think this means that Expedition and some other charting programs may soon be able to run a Broadband Radar, with or without a Simrad or Lowrance? Back Explore View All.
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