Lowrance BR24

B

bmacpiper

New member
Hi all,
I'm in the market for radar, and have never owned radar before. I have the Lowrance HDS8 on my boat, and wish to have radar that will interface with it, and overlay on the chartplotter window.

I have no idea about how interoperable other brands are. So, a couple of questions:
--Is there a good article out there on radar systems, traditional vs. broadband, etc. that you can point me to?
--Any gotchas on radar in general that you'd caution me about?
--The Lowrance BR24 seems like it might be a solid choice, any opinions on it so far?
--I won't have room for a radar arch, so again, the BR24 seems like a strong candidate for its low emissions, thoughts here?

Thanks as always, and talk soon. 5 foot wind waves today, just don't have the heart to go for crab...

bmc
 
Try "The Radar Book" by Kevin Monahan for a lot of good information about radars and their use. I do not think it has anything on the newest broadband/HD radars but otherwise it is a very useful book.
 
Go to www.panbo.com and read up on the radar comparisons. You won't have any problem mounting the radome directly to the pilothouse roof. I've found it is very useful to practice a lot with the radar in clear visibility so you know how to interpret the radar returns when it's foggy or dark.
 
I don't like what I have read about Lowrance support, but the info available about the radar itself has been very good:

http://www.boatinglife.com/article/Revi ... band-Radar

Here's a sales video with interesting side by side comparisons:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOWmWvojp98

These are from Panbo:

http://www.panbo.com/cgi-bin/admin/mt-s ... band+radar


I'm very happy with my Furuno system, but I would seriously consider the BR24 if I were outfitting another vessel. If you mostly coastal cruise (rather than deep water open ocean crossings) 3nm is all you need. I seldom run my radar farther than .750 nm. If I scan farther than 3nm I need to adjust my settings. I have mine dialed in nicely for 3nm or less and that's what I usually use.

No worries on a flat mount, but I prefer to elevate the radome off the roof and this can be done with a pedestal mount of course. At least with traditional radar, you don't want your GPS receive in the path of your radar. I also believe strongly in a high quality radar reflector (I use the tri-lens) and you cannot have a highly reflective item close to your radar or you will have a blind spot. It is amazing how small some vessels appear on radar. Even tiny vessels can present a good target on radar from larger ships when they use a good reflector. I would never run without one after some of my experiences in fog in Massachusetts Bay and the Block Island Sound. I snapped a great picture of a wall of fog a few years ago:

http://www.c-brats.com/modules.php?set_ ... _photo.php
 
matt_unique":377qwmho said:
I don't like what I have read about Lowrance support, but the info available about the radar itself has been very good:


I'm very happy with my Furuno system, but I would seriously consider the BR24 if I were outfitting another vessel. If you mostly coastal cruise (rather than deep water open ocean crossings) 3nm is all you need. I seldom run my radar farther than .750 nm. If I scan farther than 3nm I need to adjust my settings. I have mine dialed in nicely for 3nm or less and that's what I usually use.
Click to expand...

Thanks Matt. I have the HDS8, and Lowrance's reputation for poor service is well-deserved, in my opinion. I had a small problem when the unit was brand new, which we thought was a faulty transducer. After the support lady abused me on the phone for 20 minutes (basically saying that I didn't know how to install, etc.), she then reluctantly agreed to send me a new transducer. I asked for overnight shipping, and she would have done it for $30 or something. Of course I wasn't willing to pay that, and the transducer showed up 3 MONTHS later. In the meantime, we found the problem and it wasn't the transducer. I would have been more than a little upset if I was without the brand new unit for the entire summer.

That said, the HDS unit is incredible, and I accepted the poor service as a necessary evil. I would do the same for the BR24 if it lives up to the hype.


You mentioned 3nm--I thought the BR24 was good to 20nm? As you said, I'm not a bluewater guy, and I think 3nm would be pretty good. But, I do spend some time fishing in the shipping lanes, and always am amazed at how fast a ship arrives that was just a speck a few minutes ago. I wouldn't mind having more distance, maybe 10 nm or so, if the unit can do it.

Thanks to all for the tips, I'll do some more reading on these.

tx,
bmc
 
One more thing:

Lowrance has an "essentials" guide that you can view online here:

http://mediabase.edbasa.com/kunder/navi ... _2%20pages

After all the marketing up front, the last two pages actually do a very good job of describing the BR24's strengths and weaknesses, which are echoed in the panbo.com writeups you linked to. In their charts, they suggest that a large container ship would be seen between 7 and 14 nm away, depending on height of the BR24 antenna. That would be plenty in my case.

It looks like the BR24 may well be a good fit for my usage, but I'll keep reading. I spend a lot of time in close quarters with other fishing boats, ferries, etc. and very little time offshore.

bmc
 
Initially I was going to buy one of the broad band units; then I read the real side by side reviews and decided against purchase. I have an older Lowrance chart plotter and sounder (3 years old) and it has worked well.

Although we often keep our radar at 3 miles, I do like to have good "visability" out to at least 16 miles if there is large ship traffic (this is about the range they show up--and usually gives you 30 minutes warning of course and proximity.

I agree that Panbo has excellent material--there are a number of other independant reviews which pretty much confirm what Ben says.
 
One of the things to keep in mind is realistic radar range as a function of height. None of us are getting 15+nm with a radome 9' from the water unless we're painting something awfully tall. If our radome's are 9' off the water and we are looking for a 20' tall vessel for example the max range our radar's can 'paint' is 9.18nm.
 
That is why the big ships show up at about 13 miles--occasionally more, but that is about the "line of sight" you can expect with the hull bridge of the larger ships. Anything at 24 miles you are looking at Islands or perhaps the biggest cruise ship--about the same as some islands!
 
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