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Hype! Digital Radar does not exist. It's a marketing term thought up by executives who have never used radar, run a boat or been to sea. Did you read that on Northstars website? They are using Koden radars and invented nothing.
All radars emit microwaves through a device called a magnetron. The signals are analog radio waves and radar units receive returns of those microwaves reflected off the targets.
I've been running boats for 25 years and have used old analog radars and raster scan radars. An analog radar used an electron gun syncronized to the antenna and painted the radar picture on a glass coated with phosphorous. Sometime in the 1970's Raytheon and Furuno introduced the raster scan radar; where the radar image was "saved" in memory chips and the radar picture was displayed by raster scan; like a television set.
If you're looking for a radar buy a Furuno; there are none better, just cheaper. Furuno has the only true color radar on the market, where the colors indicate target density, which is useful for weather. Over the past twenty-five years I've used Raytheon, Furuno, Anritsu, JRC, Simrad, Decca, Litton, Sperry and Raymarine. Some were good, some bad; but, over the years, none have performed as well as Furuno radars. In fact, as a professional mariner, I've found Furuno to be the most reliable, easiest to use equipment on the market. The last boat I ran had a twenty year old Furuno that had just been repaired and it worked great for the two months I was in the Caribbean running the boat.
JRC makes good large ship radars, but you can't get parts for them. I ran a tug on the Black Warrior a few years ago and when we were told we had to wait six weeks for a radar part, the company just replaced it with a Furuno.
The Raymarine is a toy, but what would you expect from a company that gives its equipment to boat manufacturers at cheap prices and spends more money on advertising than R&D? A few years ago, I was delivering a boat to Green Turtle key equipped with a Raymarine radar and it could not see the 50' sport fishing boat on our beam, no matter how hard I tried to tune it. It did O.K. with radar reflectors, though.
Spend some time on the Internet to get information on radar theory and pick up a copy of Starpath's Radar Trainer to learn how to use radar. Talk to professionals and most will recommend Furuno.
The Raymarine is a toy, but what would you expect from a company that gives its equipment to boat manufacturers at cheap prices and spends more money on advertising than R&D? A few years ago, I was delivering a boat to Green Turtle key equipped with a Raymarine radar and it could not see the 50' sport fishing boat on our beam, no matter how hard I tried to tune it. It did O.K. with radar reflectors, though.
Whoa Dude! You're coming on loud & clear for your 1st post! Welcome to the board & I agree with most of your advice but ease up on Raymarine. You're going to step on a lot of toes with harsh language like that! The raymarine units work fine. I've owned them & used/installed many units. The 10kw unit is a killer! I agree,Furuno is probabaly the top unit (I love the 25kw 1964!) but Ray insn't a "toy"...
Hype! Digital Radar does not exist. It's a marketing term thought up by executives who have never used radar, run a boat or been to sea. Did you read that on Northstars website? They are using Koden radars and invented nothing.
All radars emit microwaves through a device called a magnetron. The signals are analog radio waves and radar units receive returns of those microwaves reflected off the targets.
I've been running boats for 25 years and have used old analog radars and raster scan radars. An analog radar used an electron gun syncronized to the antenna and painted the radar picture on a glass coated with phosphorous. Sometime in the 1970's Raytheon and Furuno introduced the raster scan radar; where the radar image was "saved" in memory chips and the radar picture was displayed by raster scan; like a television set.
If you're looking for a radar buy a Furuno; there are none better, just cheaper. Furuno has the only true color radar on the market, where the colors indicate target density, which is useful for weather. Over the past twenty-five years I've used Raytheon, Furuno, Anritsu, JRC, Simrad, Decca, Litton, Sperry and Raymarine. Some were good, some bad; but, over the years, none have performed as well as Furuno radars. In fact, as a professional mariner, I've found Furuno to be the most reliable, easiest to use equipment on the market. The last boat I ran had a twenty year old Furuno that had just been repaired and it worked great for the two months I was in the Caribbean running the boat.
JRC makes good large ship radars, but you can't get parts for them. I ran a tug on the Black Warrior a few years ago and when we were told we had to wait six weeks for a radar part, the company just replaced it with a Furuno.
The Raymarine is a toy, but what would you expect from a company that gives its equipment to boat manufacturers at cheap prices and spends more money on advertising than R&D? A few years ago, I was delivering a boat to Green Turtle key equipped with a Raymarine radar and it could not see the 50' sport fishing boat on our beam, no matter how hard I tried to tune it. It did O.K. with radar reflectors, though.
Spend some time on the Internet to get information on radar theory and pick up a copy of Starpath's Radar Trainer to learn how to use radar. Talk to professionals and most will recommend Furuno.
1 - Digital RADAR does indeed exist. This isn't just a matter of semantics. The underlying principles are the same, but how the image makes it to the display is completely different. Modern raster-scan PPI RADAR digitizes the return signal(s) at the tranceiver. Older radial-scan PPI units drive the CRT with analog control circuitry similar to monochromatic TV video.
Without going into an unnecessary level of detail, digitization in a PPI RADAR is done in (or after) the IF stage so as to allow advanced signal processing to be performed that simply isn't possible in radial-scan systems.
And not to quibble, but there are several types of RADAR that have been "digital" since their inception. Many pulsed signals are considered to be "digital" by those of us in the electronics industry when they are crafted primarily for processing by digital-domain equipment. The IEEE has published several papers dedicated to clarification of this exact topic. Phased arrays are but one example of a RADAR system that wasn't really practical until advent of digital transmitter control and signal processing.
2 - Not all RADAR transmitters use a magnetron. Many applications (though not many marine) use klystron tubes. Many others use solid-state devices such as Gunn diodes.
I am not going to dispute your observations regarding the RADARs that you mention in your post, as my RADAR experience is primarily with defence systems and, as of late, automotive collision avoidance systems. But I would seriously consider doing a little research on the fundamentals before make some of the sweeping statements in your post.
I recently installed the Raymarine 2KW with a E-120 display. It does an excellent job of displaying channel markers out to about 1/4 mile. Maybe their older products were not so good but the current radar works great.
Let me clarify this; there is no marine digital radar. Mike is correct about several different types of radar that have been digital since their inception. But that does not apply to marine radar. If anyone knows of a marine radar that does not use a magnetron, please correct me. My post was directed to Northstar's claim of "inventing" new digital radar technology. They don't even make radars, nor does Simrad nor Nobeltec. They all use Koden or JRC radars ported to their chartplotters. Digitally processing the analog signal to create a raster display is not what the advertising is implying. So I make no apologies for my statements.
Boomerang,
Why should I "ease up" on Raymarine. I have a friend who just trashed his 10 year old Raytheon radar, because "parts aren't available any longer." I've run boats with Autohelm pilots that were great and I alway liked the Raytheon instruments. But isn't it this the forum where people complain of the Raymarine DSM 300's quitting all the time? And after all the hype about Navionics Platnium chips that were a "Raymarine" exclusive, isn't it this forum where people are saying they aren't really useful? Believe me when I tell you I have no particular reason to like Furuno, except that I've always been able to get the equipment fixed anywhere. And that's pretty rare occurance. I would like Northstar too, but their support stinks and their equipment seems to fail often.
Now to answer Skip Hughs. Six kilowatts is the minimum you'll need to see birds; twelve is really better. You should also get the longest open array antenna you can comfortably swing, since the radar bearing error is the same as the horizontal beamwidth. Since birds are small targets, you need the smallest horizontal beamwidth you can fit on your boat.
That's not all, either. Marine radar wasn't and isn't designed to find birds. So you'll need to manually tune the radar with gain at maximum and all the filters off. On a CRT radar birds will look like smoke appearing and disappearing on the screen; on a color LCD, you'll see small clumps appear and disappear. You'll also want a True Motion radar to effectively track birds. So before making a decision, make sure you can get this feature.
Thanks starnavigator your input is very helpful in my decision making.
skip - whatever you get - read "Radar for Mariners" by David Birch - excellent for all levels of expertise from just starting out to experts....get it off Amazon...
Boca,you had better be doing better than 1/4 mile! A 2kW should paint those markers at least 2 or 3 miles away,easy.
I should have indicated the channel markers I can see 1/4, even to 1/2 mile out are small single wood post markers. Bottom line is the 2kw RM radar works as well in this application as my 4kw Furuno on my big boat.
After more than 20 years in the air traffic field using "raw" RADAR, digitized radar, and NEXRAD, I much prefer raw RADAR for examination of actual targets. Weather, however, can render raw radar worthless...unless you're looking for something like a squall line. If I were going to use RADAR for weather purposes I would use something like a Doppler radar, or NEXRAD.
i switched over from Furuno to Raymarine. all i can say is WOW !!!
i was going thru the harbor and picked up a boat AND its anchor line i think 1/8 ( which ever is the lowest ) setting thats all i needed to see i was sold
and its an older Sl model 2kw if they improved with the new series i applaud them but i cant see anything being better then this
digital radar advantages 
