Do you plan to use the radar when under sail or only when under motor?

My experience has been that I tend to only use the radar in foggy conditions, and under those conditions I'm usually more comfortable using my engine rather than the sails (the additional safety benefit of being heard in the fog at close quarters).

If you do plan to use the radar when under sail, then be aware that radar performance will suffer somewhat if you don't mount it on gimballs and are using it when heeled over (or, for that matter, under sail or power in rough weather). The performance impact is amplified by putting it on a 10' poll vs. putting it 30' up the mast.

Good question & answer.
A friend is giving me his old radar, and I have the same question: Should I incorporate the stern pole into the SS cockpit enclosure frame I'm having built, or mount it up the mast? I'm leaning toward the mast.

On my last boat, I had a mast off the stern built by a friend for the cost of dinner and drinks. On my Catalina I have a backstay mount, for a Furno dinosaur so I really cant comment on how well it works. I salvaged my Raymarine from the wreck but havent brought it to the new boat yet. Really didnt see a big need for gimballing on the last boat, worked fine for my needs, usually at night and under power as was said.

I have mine on a Garhauer pole on the stern. For the price, I would think it would be hard to duplicate what you get from them. Besides having an adjustment (manual) for when you heal, its got a guard around the top that allowed me to mount my GPS and Sirius wx radio antennas up high, plus you get the mounting bracket for the antenna.

I'm on the east coast.... I got an 8' pole rather than a 10' because of the much higher shipping costs for the 10' pole but, what I've discovered, the 8 footer allows me to get to the antennas and connections without having to swing the pole down, which I could not do on the water. I installed the Sirius with the pole up, standing on the aft pulpit seat.

PS: Flymeway... did you know under the Rules of the Road, your supposed to use every means available to maintain a lookout, "including radar when its operational"... nothing said about in rain or fog... supposed to have it on all the time though none of us do.

I have my Garmin 18HD rardar mounted on a 10 foot pole on the stern and it has worked great. If I need to work on it I can pivot it down or use my little giant ladder and pull into my slip stern first and work on it

I will say that it is annoying when my jib gets caught on the mast-mounted radar. I have an old unit, though, and my understanding is that performance really does suffer on the stern poles.

[QUOTE=Wavelength;21709]I have ordered a new garmin chartplotter radar. The original radar was mounted on the mast and I have no plans to put it back. My plan is to put it on a 10 foot pole on the stern. First are there any comments or ideas I should incorporate into the pole design. I am considering a small boom.
A second question about mounting the radar itself. There seem to be a strong push on using these gimbal mounts to keep it horizontal. Is it necessary, a good idea or a waste of time? My plan was to build it, not buy.[/QUOTE]

Wavelength -
We mounted ours on a stern pole (we got it from Edson, if I recall correctly) when we bought the boat 4 years back. Never used it much until we went to Maine last summer, when it was worth every penny (although it won't help for the ubiquitous lobster pots, alas!) I have no experiential basis to compare the merits of mast vs. stern pole, or gimbal vs. non-gimbal (ours is fixed). But with benefit of hindsight, two observations, for what they're worth:

1) Ours is mounted on a fitting that sits on top of the gunwale (if that's the proper term for the cockpit rim upon which the stern pulpit is mounted). In hindsight, I wish we had instead fabricated a bracket to mount it on the transom itself so that it was a tad more aft, because the location interferes with the bimini somewhat.

2) Also, because the pole is right up against the stern pulpit, there's no room on that side to mount the bracket to hold the dingy's outboard engine, so that's mounted on the other side of the pulpit. Thus, if we wanted to run block and tackle to hoist the engine from the pole, we'd need to add a fairly lengthy boom, rather than attach the block directly to the pole. Again, if the pole was mounted a bit more aft, on the transom, the geometry might have made the latter possible. (We've found, however, that the bimini frame is strong enough to handle a snatch block that we use for an engine hoist.)

The Garhauer pole is well thought out and of quality construction. Given your location, it may not be the best $$ in terms of shipping and customs duty. But you could certainly copy the design and have it fabricated locally or DIY. Go to their website and look around. Good luck.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that my pole came with an outboard block & tackle system. Since I bought this about 10 years ago, and I suffer from DRS, I don't remember if I paid extra for it or if came with the pole but its handy ,comes off easily to store below decks, and works very well. Could probably pick someone up from the water too if someone fell in an became incapacitated..

Chuck's right, a very good idea if you need a dinghy engine hoist, nice combo unit. On the Garhauer site, too. Their 6:1 tackle is extremely good.

[QUOTE=Chachere;21725]Never used it much until we went to Maine last summer, when it was worth every penny (although it won't help for the ubiquitous lobster pots, alas!) [/QUOTE]

Actually, the newer, best-in-class radars WILL show lobster or crab pots in a meaningful way. I didn't believe it either, but was on a friend's powerboat at the end of last season; he had a brand-new setup (Simrad 4G) and could pick up each crab pot buoy out of a field of about 30 of them (we actually counted). It saw his pot, right over the waypoint he put down on the plotter.

My understanding though is that the Garmin HD (or even the xHD) isn't a broadband radar the way the Simrad is, and they work different -- the Simrad is better at picking up things like buoys.

[QUOTE=FlyMeAway;21735]Actually, the newer, best-in-class radars WILL show lobster or crab pots in a meaningful way. I didn't believe it either, but was on a friend's powerboat at the end of last season; he had a brand-new setup (Simrad 4G) and could pick up each crab pot buoy out of a field of about 30 of them (we actually counted). It saw his pot, right over the waypoint he put down on the plotter.

My understanding though is that the Garmin HD (or even the xHD) isn't a broadband radar the way the Simrad is, and they work different -- the Simrad is better at picking up things like buoys.[/QUOTE]

Most with a 3G/4G will want to drastically detune the radar to NOT see lobster pots in Maine. There are far too many of them. All it does is make a mess of your screen. The other problem 3G & 4G customers have had is reading rough water as returns, sea clutter. The tuning of these domes can be rather tedious.. The Garmin's will also pick up lobster pots but they are really over-tuned if they do.. All domes require good tuning I just find the 3G/4G sometimes a tad over-sensitive for the Maine Coast and all our pots. Great units though..

Ross... besides a knife you might want to consider a big pot!

[QUOTE]The tuning of these domes can be rather tedious.. The Garmin's will also pick up lobster pots but they are really over-tuned if they do.. All domes require good tuning I just find the 3G/4G sometimes a tad over-sensitive for the Maine Coast and all our pots.[/QUOTE]

Tuning the domes??? I don't understand the concept of tuning a dome. How can the dome (presumably 'dome' means the scanner unit's transmitter or receiver) be tuned? Modern radars cannot be tuned, unless the option is hidden way down in some sub-menu. Perhaps you mean adjusting the Gain?

Receiver sensitivity can be adjusted with Gain and/or STC. Gain adjusts receiver sensitivity throughout the operating range of the radar, while STC adjusts receiver sensitivity close in to the vessel (STC, some manufacturers call it 'anti-clutter sea', provides an additional decrease in receiver sensitivity close in to own ship, and that diminishes the farther from the vessel the sea clutter is, and by 4 miles out has no effect thereafter). STC is the proper control to use to lessen sea clutter. Sea clutter is a problem close in, but not farther away, because sea clutter's effect is less at a distance due to curvature of the earth.

Background explanation: 'Tuning' of a radar was/is the process of shifting the receiver frequency to match the transmitter frequency. Magnetrons are notoriously unstable in frequency, and 'in the old days' the operator had to manually *tune* the receiver frequency to match the transmitter frequency…thus a Tuning control. Today's modern radars have internal circuitry that automatically tracks the transmitter frequency to a very high standard - better than a person can do it - thereby obviating the need for manual intervention. Thus one rarely sees a Tuning control today.

I have had both pole and mast mounts for radar. The pole was easier to install and I used it to mount a GPS ant and a cockpit flood light. It worked well. It was really nice to hang on to when viewing the seas aft. It was good enough in foggy motoring situations. There were some blind spots that I could never figure out. On the 3 mile range it was not good enough? On any other range it worked well. Non gimbled
On my new boat I have a mast mounted gimbled radar sensor and it seems great in all ranges. It was a lot more money and harder to install.
It not a great comparison because the new radar system are so much improved.

[QUOTE=LCBrandt;21845]Tuning the domes??? I don't understand the concept of tuning a dome. How can the dome (presumably 'dome' means the scanner unit's transmitter or receiver) be tuned? Modern radars cannot be tuned, unless the option is hidden way down in some sub-menu. Perhaps you mean adjusting the Gain?

Receiver sensitivity can be adjusted with Gain and/or STC. Gain adjusts receiver sensitivity throughout the operating range of the radar, while STC adjusts receiver sensitivity close in to the vessel (STC, some manufacturers call it 'anti-clutter sea', provides an additional decrease in receiver sensitivity close in to own ship, and that diminishes the farther from the vessel the sea clutter is, and by 4 miles out has no effect thereafter). STC is the proper control to use to lessen sea clutter. Sea clutter is a problem close in, but not farther away, because sea clutter's effect is less at a distance due to curvature of the earth.

Background explanation: 'Tuning' of a radar was/is the process of shifting the receiver frequency to match the transmitter frequency. Magnetrons are notoriously unstable in frequency, and 'in the old days' the operator had to manually *tune* the receiver frequency to match the transmitter frequency…thus a Tuning control. Today's modern radars have internal circuitry that automatically tracks the transmitter frequency to a very high standard - better than a person can do it - thereby obviating the need for manual intervention. Thus one rarely sees a Tuning control today.[/QUOTE]

I am a hold over from the early days of radar. I still refer to adjustments to gain & STC as tuning....

Actually; I have the Lowrance 3G Broadband Digital radar. Firstly it is solid state – i.e. the transmitter is a semiconductor device, not based on magnetron technology. It measures the distance to a target not by timing the returned echoes, but by measuring the difference between the transmitted frequency and echoed frequency. (FMCW – Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave).
Works pretty well out of the box, but there definitely are some more advanced user adjustments via menu options.