A couple of months ago i posted my first impressions after installation of the Furuno wireless radar. model Drs4w. At that time I mentioned several design weaknesses including 1. an external (i.e. exposed) cable connection. 2. non marine power cable and 3. lack of an electronic bearing line. Now i have had an opportunity to test the unit at sea for several days. I am very disappointed in the performance. Although this is a 4kW radar and the distance scale can be set as far as 24 miles, I can detect typical cruising vessels (motor and sail) no more than about 3/4 mile away. A steel commercial fishing vessel, about 75 ft long only shows up within 1.1 mile. As I approach a 4000 ft high mountain range rising abruptly out of the sea, it shows up only about 5 miles away and even then only weakly. I have queried Furuno tech support to find out if this is typical perormenace. The tech person tells me this is the case. Why a “24 mile” radar cannot detect typical vessels further than about one mile made me think that either the power is too low or the gain set too low. But since the Furuno tech person says this is the normal behavior makes me state that this is not worth spending money on. The wifi to iPad concept is good but the execution of design makes this a poor choice for collision avoidance. Richard -- Richard Packard Professor Emeritus Physics Department University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 http://physics.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/Richard-Packard 510 525 0279

Thanks for the update Richard > On May 1, 2020, at 8:57 PM, Richard P via Trawlers-and-Trawlering <trawlers@lists.trawlering.com> wrote: > > A couple of months ago i posted my first impressions after installation of > the Furuno wireless radar. model Drs4w. At that time I mentioned several > design weaknesses including 1. an external (i.e. exposed) cable connection. > 2. non marine power cable and 3. lack of an electronic bearing line. > > Now i have had an opportunity to test the unit at sea for several days. I > am very disappointed in the performance. Although this is a 4kW radar and > the distance scale can be set as far as 24 miles, I can detect typical > cruising vessels (motor and sail) no more than about 3/4 mile away. A > steel commercial fishing vessel, about 75 ft long only shows up within 1.1 > mile. As I approach a 4000 ft high mountain range rising abruptly out of > the sea, it shows up only about 5 miles away and even then only weakly. > > I have queried Furuno tech support to find out if this is typical > perormenace. The tech person tells me this is the case. Why a “24 mile” > radar cannot detect typical vessels further than about one mile made me > think that either the power is too low or the gain set too low. But since > the Furuno tech person says this is the normal behavior makes me state that > this is not worth spending money on. > > The wifi to iPad concept is good but the execution of design makes this a > poor choice for collision avoidance. > > Richard > > -- > Richard Packard > Professor Emeritus > Physics Department > University of California > Berkeley, CA 94720 > http://physics.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/Richard-Packard > 510 525 0279 > _______________________________________________ > http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/listinfo/trawlers_lists.trawlering.com > > To unsubscribe or modify your subscription options (get password, change email address, etc) go to: http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/listinfo/trawlers_lists.trawlering.com > Trawlers & Trawlering and T&T are trademarks of Water World > Productions. Unauthorized use is prohibited.