You don't know Bobsprit. He NEVER in his life has
been 24 miles from land. If he uses 24 miles all he'll
see is tall buildings. Believe me. Booby is better off
using 1/4 mile than 24 miles. He rarely gets more than
a mile or two from land. He needs to be aware of
things very close by because those are the things
he hits.

S.Simon


"Shen44" wrote in message ...
ubject: Radar and Basic Nav.
From: "Simple Simon"
Date: 09/02/2003 15:32 Pacific Standard Time

Sailboaters are stupid when it comes to choosing radar.
They favor the wrong features. One example is the range
they choose. Booby is a good example. He keeps his
unit on 24 mile range so he can keep track of thunder
storms while he should be using 1/4 mile range to keep
track of things that will affect him sooner rather than
later. Big and powerful is really stupid for a slow speed
boat that heels. Small and accurate at close range is
what a sailor really needs.

ROFL .... Your lack of knowledge in another area, is screaming at us.
At sea, there is nothing wrong with using the 24mi range (though I'd admit for
his size boat, that's a bit far). You can still see targets that are closer to
you, so you can easily shift your range down for a better view .... course,
that should be a normal procedure.
Normally for Boobie, I'd suggest, in the Sound, running on the 6 or 12 mile
range, depending on conditions and what his major use is. Minimum would be 3
miles, shifting to lower (1.5 or 0.75) for a closer look at a particular target
for short periods, but NEVER leaving his radar at 0.25 mi, unless he was doing
some close in navigation, within a harbor area.
You always want to be on the longest range that allows you the best overall
picture of your area, be it traffic or navigational.
Whenever you switch to the real low ranges (0.75mi and below) you are creating
a situation of "tunnel vision" and Highly limiting your overall view of
surroundings.
Are there times that you want to be on these lower ranges? Of course, but,
these are normally only within harbor areas, or close situations in fog
(traffic) or close navigation problems .... even then, stay on the higher range
as long as possible (question of G spatial awareness).

Radar also needs to be
mounted high up - the higher to better so it can 'look
down'. This isn't possible on a sailing yacht because
the higher up the worse the heel. You end up with a
gimballed mount lower down that's garbage.

S.Simon - a natural-born Master

You're a "Natural born" something, but it ain't "Master"

Shen