Marine Electronics Forum - Furuno Radar settings for birds

Hi all-
Got the 6KW 1942 all installed and am ready to give her a shot for bird hunting soon.Just wondering if anyone has this same unit or one similar and could give me some pointers on the settings-at least where to start.From what I have read so far-
1.Anti Sea and Anti Clutter off
2.Gain 100%
3.Range setting 3 or 6 miles

Things that I still need are:
1.Antenna height adjustment-I thought I read somewhere that you were supposed to have it set to either high or low for some reason no matter if it is only 8 feet off the water?
2.Echo Stretch?
3.Echo Trail?
4.Pulselength?

Can anyone help with these or maybe any other settings I am overlooking??Thanks so much,
Mike
Greygoose

https://www.furuno.com/Furuno/Doc/0/RGV79V8MGN04L6SDQMJFBNLEC0/Waypoints_8-04.pdf

My advice would be to first tweak the unit as a good radar for "normal" use, then learn to dial in for birds. You will want to return to normal settings for running, navigating in the dark, etc. I posted sometime back how to adjust a radar based on a Furuno manual. This procedure will give a much better picture then most setups since very few take the time to fully adjust a radar. You can find the thread by searching.
I will try to help with your specific questions.

======================
1.Anti Sea and Anti Clutter off

>>> yes to rain a/c, sea a/c however depends on you range. It typically affects only the first 1-2 miles.

2.Gain 100%

>>> Start there and back down. At 100% you will be saturated with noise.

3.Range setting 3 or 6 miles

>>> All depends on how far you want to see. Obviously the further out the less smaller groups of birds will show up.

Things that I still need are:
1.Antenna height adjustment-I thought I read somewhere that you were supposed to have it set to either high or low for some reason no matter if it is only 8 feet off the water?

>>> IIRC this is in the service menu. I believe it is in meters. This will affect how the sea a/c works. Mine is set to around 4 meters as best I can recall.

2.Echo Stretch?

>>> should not need

3.Echo Trail?

>>> should not need

4.Pulselength?

>>> defaults should be fine.

Make sure you have set sweep timing and also perform a heading alignment. Set main bang to around 18. This will clean up your picture when using 1/8m range by suppressing overload from nearby objects. It takes out the big glob in the center of the screen.
These apply to your unit in general and not specifically to bird hunting. Remember your "normal" gain and sea a/c so you can return to a usuable radar when not bird searching.

For comparison sake here are my 1933 settings.

normal: gain=58, sea a/c=42
birds, storms: gain=auto/calm

The auto/calm setting really cranks up the gain but makes it ez to return to your manual settings. I also suggest setting a hot key to gain and sea a/c since those are adjusted most often.

Troll-you da' man!That's the kind of info I was looking for.Can you tell me about the "STC curve"?The manual says it is affected by the antenna height setting.What is it and is this something to be concerned about?I still can't remember where I read that the antenna height should be set to the low or the high extreme (regardless of the actual height) for bird hunting. ;?
Mike
Greygoose

As best I recall you want the normal STC curve (short time constant). Basically sea a/c suppresses the returns based on time so in effect you can crank up the gain for far objects without a mass of clutter for near objects. The curve is how this attenuation is applied. I left mine at normal. I believe the antenna height also affects the software setting but I cannot say exactly how.

In general, most bird hunting is likely out of the range of the a/c anyhow. I don't find it all that useful for removing nearby wave echos since you could lose a real target. Where it helps best is to allow full gain and yet get a clear picture when navigating a channel using 1/8nm range.

Thanks again Troll.Would you recommend setting the range for 3 mile or 6 mile?I am guessing sea conditions will determine that?
Mike
Greygoose

That would depend on several factors. I changed my ranges to multiples of 2 because I was used to that from my previous Furuno. The manual explains how to do this. It is very ez. Mine are 1/8 1/4 1/2 1 2 4 8 16 24 36 48.

You can always start at 8 and go down to 4 if you cannot see anything. If you crank up the gain and switch of a/c while bird hunting, you should see bunches of green noise. Any red or yellow are likely targets of some sort. The furuno article which someone posted is a very good explaination. Once again - this is a specialized setting for radar and not suitable for normal use. Did I mention that ;) ;)

Sounds like a plan!
Mike
Greygoose :)

troll - 3/23/2005 12:59 PM


3.Echo Trail?

>>> should not need




Echo trail is useful for spotting birds. If you are trying to pick solid targets out of the clutter on the screen having echo trail on (set to 1 or 2 minutes) small targets will stand out as you will see their trail. It will also indicate the direction and speed that the birds are travelling.

Ed

Ed-
If you are moving will the trails still show up if you happen to be traveling in the same direction the birds are moving?Also,is it any better to just do your searching while at "trolling" speed or doesn't the speed of the vessel affect the sensitivity of the radar?Thanks,
Mike
Greygoose

Greygoose - 3/24/2005 9:19 AM

Ed-
If you are moving will the trails still show up if you happen to be traveling in the same direction the birds are moving?Also,is it any better to just do your searching while at "trolling" speed or doesn't the speed of the vessel affect the sensitivity of the radar?Thanks,
Mike
Greygoose

I guess that if you are travelling at the same speed and course as the birds the trail might not show up, unless you have the radar in "true-motion" display mode (which is what Furuno recommends, but I have not tried that). I do most of my searching at slower speeds as it is tougher to read the radar at speed. I only have a 4KW radome - a more powerful open array would perform better at speed.

Ed

Another tip, Goose.

If you have heading data via sensor or AP compass, make sure the Navnet is set to read tru bearings. You can then put the cursor on the target and get the bearing to it. If hooked to a Furuno AP, you can enter the bearing as a waypoint and start navigating to it.

Very cool are these new electronics.

Thanks Guys.Troll-I don't have anything tied to my radar as I have a Garmin GPS and a Raymarine autopilot.I think I should be fine using it as a standalone.It's like anything else-I will have to experiment with it for awhile.I have some multi-track digital recording equipment that I have been learning for a year now!Thanks so much again you Guys!
Mike
Greygoose