ELECTRONICS
PRODUCTS & PRICES
Lowrance BR24 Broadband Radar sells for $1,699.
Northstar and Simrad BR24s, which offer advanced
features such as MARPA and chart overlay, have a
suggested retail price of $1,995. Visit www.lowrance.com,
www.northstarnav.com, and www.simrad-yachting.com to
learn more.
System. Installation is made easy by the fact that signal
processing on Broadband Radar occurs in the radome,
not inside the plotter, so the only cable to chase from
mast to helm is a thin one containing a Cat 5 cable and
a power wire.
Our Miami test was conducted under sunny skies, and
Mullarkey’s evaluation did not consider Broadband Radar’s
performance in rain. A representative of another major
marine electronics manufacturer told me that his
company’s own testing of broadband technology had
noted degradation of performance in rainy conditions.
Paul Comyns, director of marketing for Navico’s
Northstar and Simrad brands, said his company’s testing
had revealed no such disadvantage. “When you have radar
running, rainwater does absorb microwave radiation,”
Comyns said. “If you have a torrential rainstorm, any radar
is going to give much-reduced performance, but if you are
in fog, snow, or normal rain, it’s going to work just fine.
The amount of rain to air is so low, it’s not going to make
any difference.”
Navico has done something unusual with Broadband
Radar as it competes in a marketplace that offers superb
pulse radars from all of the major manufacturers, including
Navico itself. Rather than continuing to refine a mature
technology, Navico spent the past five years reinventing
radar for the 24-mile end of the market, a navigation tool
with decided advantages and some disadvantages. Now
that radar comes in two flavors, skippers looking to equip
their vessels with radar for the first time or needing to
replace an older unit should carefully consider what kind
of boating they will be doing and where. Given a choice
between being able to detect far-off targets or those 50 feet
away—all else being roughly equal—many trawler owners
might well choose the latter. And some of the big boys
might opt for one of each.
