Raytheon RL70 Upgrade?

[gdavi2535]

Hi,
I am purchasing a 2001 Catalina 36 MkII sailboat with a Raytheon RL70 radar system and have a quick question. Although it's only monochrome, the radar system currently has a slot for a chart card, and supposedly can connect to a GPS. Can you tell me if the card and GPS upgrade are still available and if so, how much it might be? Can't quite afford to upgrade the whole system yet.
Thanks,
Gary D

[camaraderie]

My recollection is that the RL70Plus and the RL70RCPlus use the exact same case and display but the RC version is the only one which supports charts and GPS connection. If you only have the 70, you may have what looks to be the proper slots...bu there is nothing there. If you have the "RC" version...you should be able to call up a basemap on the screen by cycling through the display options. If you can do this, it is simply a matter of adding an appropriate C-mapNT card in the slot and hooking up an NMEA feed from a GPS. There is NO upgrade to the pure RL70 radar display.
The Raymarine GPS mushroom for a rail mount costs around $300...but any GPS with NMEA data output can be used. A c-map chart card for the entire west coast is about $200 bucks.

[christyleigh]

That's what came with my boat a couple years ago and as Cam suggested it's Radar Only. Since I had to bring the boat up from Annapolis I sprung for the Raymarine Stand Alone GPS Chartplotter to guide me for around $700 plus 2 Navionics chart plugins needed for the trip at $200 each.
Now I have 2 'dead end' non-interfacable products.... but I needed it at the time and the price was right. I'll probably upgrade for a Few...... Grand in a Few.... years but for now I have what I Need.


Raychart 435i Features Include:

• Internal GPS receiver and antenna for simple installation
• Direct Sunlight Viewable display
• Paper like color chart display using Navionics Gold Chart cartography
• Flexible and convenient Compact Flash support for cartography and unlimited waypoint,route and track storage
• Raymarine SmartRoute automatically builds routes and waypoints from previous tracks
• Autozoom and Screen Amplifier functions intelligently maintain the vessel symbol,waypoint destination and appropriate chart range in clear view while underway
• Standard 12 channel Satellite Differential GPS receiver for extreme accuracy using WAAS or EGNOS system*

[KeelHaulin]

The RL70CRC Plus is P/N E52034 - Color, Chart, Radar, MARPA
The RL70RC Plus is P/N E52032 - Monochrome, Chart, Radar, MARPA

The RL70C Plus is P/N E52033 - Color, Radar, MARPA
The RL70 Plus is P/N E52031 - Monochrome, Radar (Not sure if it has MARPA)



Check the back of your unit for the P/N, if it has slots for the chart card I would think that it is one of the Raychart types (both radar and plotter).

Camaraderie is correct; you can add a GPS and chart card; in addition to several other NMEA-0183 devices. You don't have the owner's manual? Check raymarine website; I bet you can either download or order a copy of the manual...

HTH...