adding radar to mast

[xort]

I'll be adding a new radar dome to the mast. Are there any guidelines or rules of thumb as to where/how high to mount the radar? I'm mainly thinking about the genoa. I'd prefer a lower position to keep weight lower. Perhaps near the first spreaders?

[sailingdog]

The first spreaders sounds about right. However, you might want to consider a separate mounting pole for the radome instead. A mast mounted radome can take a lot of abuse and can chafe the headsail quite a bit. A stern mounted radar mast wouldn't.

About 16-20' above the LWL is probably about right... since any higher, you may start to lose up close coverage.

[camaraderie]

Put it just above the first spreaders.

[negrini]

People trend to put it higher, thinking they could see farther. As this is somehow true, lower brings beter closer figures ratio (and discrimination), and indeed, this is what really matters in critical situations. But by far, the major reason for you consider not put it too high, is the boat motion. The higher, the less stable. You'll loose reliable sector alarms, chart overlap (if that's your case) and target tracking precision. No matter how advanced is yours, even the gyro feedback cannot compensate for a too high installed antena. As a rule of thumb, first spreader is about right, as others say ....

[JiffyLube]

I agree with both negrini and sailingdog. Lower gets your radar lower and closer in. I mounted mine low because I wanted to see the things close to me, not the things miles away.

[sailingdog]

But you want it high enough that it isn't irradiating you and your crew on a regular basis... 16-20' is about right for that, even on a barge like Xort's new boat.

[JiffyLube]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

But you want it high enough that it isn't irradiating you and your crew on a regular basis... 16-20' is about right for that, even on a barge like Xort's new boat.

Again, I agree.

I determined the height I wanted the radar by figuring for a person 6' tall standing at the bow, and then adding another 4' to that. From that point of 10', I drew a 12 1/2 degree line up and back to where the radome would be located (I did this with a scaled drawing of the boat). The 12 1/2 degree line represents the lower half of the radar beam as the unit scans.

[Faster]

In a practical sense you may be limited by the length of the cable provided vis a vis the distance to the radome from where you plan to mount the display unit.

We chose to mount the radar on a stern post which allowed us to easily mount the display at the helm where I felt it would be most useful.

[max-on]

My radar dome is located just below the first spreader.

[sailingdog]

Did any one notice that CD didn't say anything regarding radar???