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From: C. Marin Faure (no email)
Date: Thu Jul 03 2003 - 02:17:09 EDT
From: "Glenn Williams" <>
Subject: TWL: Decca radar
To: <>, "Arild Jensen"
<>
Message-ID: <000401c34057$752cab60$b0f871cb at glennwilliams>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>Like you I was surprised at the lack of corrosion inside the dome and the
obviously robust build quality. When the problem occured I asked whether it
was worth fixing, or whether I should simply buy a new unit. The tech said
that if the problem was only the power supply, the old Decca would give a
few of the modern units a run for their money, and I should save mine!...
Sure, tuning is a bit of an art, but this old CRT radar has great clear
pictures and has got me through a couple of tight spots.
When we bought our older Grand Banks, someone with a lot of experience in
trawlering (but I don't remember who, now) told me that a good philosophy
to follow is to never replace the electronics on a boat until they break.
Obviously this doesn't take into account big advances in systems where the
boat simply doesn't have a GPS or whatever. In our case, our boat came
with an old Raytheon 2600 radar, with the large radome mounted on a
well-made support on the front of the flybridge, which was a pretty common
mounting on trawlers back in the 1970s. Somebody very cleverly mounted the
scope itself on a hinged shelf that swings up to recess flat into the
overhead above the lower helm station. A box under the flybridge consol
protects the retracted scope from dirt, moisture, salt, etc. So when you
don't need the radar, it's gone from the cabin completely. When you do
need it, you simply reach up and hinge it down.
I've had the cover off the radome, and like you was surprised to find the
actual antenna, electronics, motor and gears to be in like-new condition,
at least in appearance. No corrosion or rust anywhere.
Like the Decca you described, this old CRT Raytheon isn't very
sophisticated in terms of features. And it's not a daylight screen, which
means using the hood during the day. But it puts out an excellent
"picture," and while it probably requires more tuning effort than the later
generations of radar units, I've not had any problem with it in this
regard. Whoever did the installation did a great job of aiming the
antenna. One of the small marine park bays we frequent has a number of
permanent mooring buoys scattered about. The buoys are not big, basically
a small, tire-sized float with a little tripod on top and a mooring ring.
But when we're moored in this bay, the radar on its lowest range picks up
every one of the buoys.
A mast-mounted antenna would give more range, but would be much more
complicated to install on our boat, what with its wooden mast and the need
to run the antenna cable forward through the boat to the helm. With the
antenna on the front of the flybridge, the cable run is only about three
feet.
I have found in the course of several fairly long runs through the northern
San Juan Islands in the fog that the radar's range is not nearly as
important as its clarity and the ability to pick up buoys, boats, and land
masses that are relatively close. The 2600 supposedly has a range of 26
miles, but in actual use I have not needed much more than a quarter of that.
It would be nice to have a new Furuno or whatever with all the bells and
whistles and a daylight screen and the ability to tie in to the chart
plotter. But for finding things in the fog and helping us pick our way
through the channels, our old Raytheon does just fine. And it's paid for.
_______________
C. Marin Faure
GB36-403 "La Perouse"
Bellingham, WA
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