[obiec]

I am going to be putting a radar on my 33 foot sail boat. I do not wont to spend a bunch of money to do so. I purchased a Furino 16 mile LCD. First I can mount the unit in the nav station and it will swing so it will be Sean at the help about 7 feet away will this be to far, do you have to play with all the buttons much, or can you set it and forget it. The nice thing about this install is that is you were on the ocean and were using the head or making coffee and a target came on you would be able to here the alarm. or if you were single handed and taking a nap. Also it would be dry at all times. But I am not sure at 7 feet you could see the display clearly enough. I could mount it right at the helm.
Secant for the Antenna, I was thinking about building a Radar arch from 2 inch aluminum round tubing. This would allow me to use a sun shade easily and help with future solar panes and such. Or I could go up the mast. or even set from the stern on a pole. How high dose the antenna need to be and dose it really need to be gimble mounted. any help I would really apricot. Thank you.
The radar will be mostly used for Fog and night cruising on the Columbia river where there is lots of barge traffic. Also do most targets like river cans and fishing boats show up on Radar.