Radar Installation

journeyman

journeyman

GreatGrady Captain
Joined
May 12, 2008
Messages
678
Reaction score
12
Points
18
Location
Gloucester, MA
Model
Marlin
Hey Guys. I hope everyone had a nice holiday and wish a safe New Year to all. :D

I plan to install radar this spring and have a question about mounting the dome on the hardtop. My setup would be an addition to the Northstar M84 multifunction display, so I'll just need the dome, black box and cable. I think I'm sticking with Northstar because during my initial installation, I was talked into an Standard Horizon VHF radio and, as it turns out, cannot link with my GPS to show transmitted coordinates of other boats. A Northstar issue I'm not happy about but for now am stuck with. Northstar says only Nothstar radios can link to my display :x

On the setups I've seen, sometimes the dome is mounted on the leading front edge of the hardtop and other times it's more in the center. My hardtop has a raised "bump up". Does that have any bearing on the mounting location or is it more of a preference issue? My plan as of right now would be a direct mount to the hardtop - no raised mounting plate. Also do I need a wedge? I've read somewhere here 10 degrees...?

My display is compatible with High-def but I've been reading about the new Broadband radar coming soon. Looks nice but ...$$$?, Overkill?, and how soon will it hit the market? Any thoughts? Thanks!
 
Radar mount

If you have the "bump" put it there direct through the hardtop. The wires should drop directly into the overhead electronics box.

Mine is installed direct to the hardtop. I don't have a bump. It is toward the front of the boat just ahead of the electronics box and the wires do drop in.

I wouldn't "overkill" the radar unit either. The smaller dome antennas work pretty well. I just upgraded from a Furuno 1621 MK II to a Garmin GMR18. A friend of mine has the Garmin radar standard not HD. The radar overlay on the chartplotter was awsome.
 
i mounted a raymarine dome on a 10" aft leaning seaview mount with a 4 degree wedge and the light bar. i have an '02 gulfstream and it is mounted on the "bump" right where the anchor light was. this allowed all the cabling to go right into the radio box. the mount helps to avoid lost contact when you are in a bow up attitude. the wedge alone isn't enough to compensate.
 
If you mount it forward of the bump, rear vision may be compromised if that's a concern. I would be concerned since I drift fish for long periods and have to watch out for others coming at me from all directions.

You want to get the scanner tilted just a bit downward as the boat sits in the water, if the boat is out of the water now, use the water line stain as a reference.

As was mentioned, don't go back too far, the front edge of the hardtop will block the vision forward when the bow is up. Unless it is mounted on a stand, the taller the stand the further back it can go.
 
My friend has his simrad dome mounted foward of the hump and has zero issues seeing targets foward and aft on his 300 Marlin. I prefer the dome on a tower on top of the hump. Like Bob said, the taller the better.

2005 300 Marlin w/F250's
 
Thanks for the responses and info.

I was leaning away from a raised mount because, as I am now, I can slip under the bridge during mid tides or better. After talking things over with Mrs. Captain and her pointing out that the we rarely wait more than 5 to 10 minutes for an opening makes this a non-issue. (she's wicked smaaat)

I hope to find it a buyers' market at the New Englang Boat Show this February and pick something up there at a good price. Maybe someone will have a display on the new Broadband Radar technology.
 
I installed a Garmin GMR18 HD on my boat and i was/am very impressed. I was anchored and i could actually see a seagull( or something like that) seating on top of the water maybe 400-500 feet away. I'm very happy with that radar.
 
I mounted my Furuno 1730 II (4KW) right on the top with a wedge in front of the raised box on my 232. Worked very well fore and aft. I was happy with the results and it looked clean, and easy to cover the boat with it on the top.

I miss the radar more than anything. Had it on for every trip almost.
 
I've noticed that most of this discussion is pertaining to the installation of radomes. We're scheduled to begin the electronics installation this week and was curious as to whether or not the location for an open array would be the same. It seems as most of the 330s on the internet have the antenna out on the brow, forward of the bump. A good friend is doing the installation (who is in the electronics installation business) and recommended that we put it, as many of you have recommended, on the bump. His reasoning for this was also to be able to drop the wires into the electronics box and that he thought it looked more proportional.

The problem we are then facing is the location of the anchor light (so that those wires would also drop into the box to avoid being visible on the underside of the hardtop). We're currently in the process of discussing with a stainless fabricator to make a light bar sweeping aft of the radar antenna to mount the anchor light, but was curious if any of you had experienced this and if you had any other ideas. Thanks in advance for the input.
 
I have a 3.5 ft array. Moved the anchor light just to port and still dropped it through the box. Looks great. Make sure to use a wedge to get the desired angle when running.
 
I don't know if you can see clear, but this is how i had mine set up without any problems and wires from the search light were inside the electronics box.

DSC_1259.jpg
 
When mounting a radar, typically you want it as high as possible to avoid any interference, and to "see" further. I would place it on the bump, mine is infront of the bump, and when running with a slight trim angle of 3-4 degrees, when I hit waves, I lose a small window behind me. To avoid this, you can add a radar mount to raise it up a few inches, which is what I plan to do, but if you are doing a fresh install, you should mount it where less work is needed, ontop of the hump. Also, if you have any gps antennas on the hump, they CANNOT be in the beam of the radar or the radar beam will burn out the gps antenna quickly. You need to raise either the radar or gps antenna higher then the other to avoid interference and damage to other electronics. VHF and radio antennas are not an issue, a satellite radio antenna might be though depending on its placement. I'd move the gps over the radar, much cheaper and easier to do.
 
When mounting a radar, typically you want it as high as possible to avoid any interference, and to "see" further. I would place it on the bump, mine is infront of the bump, and when running with a slight trim angle of 3-4 degrees, when I hit waves, I lose a small window behind me. To avoid this, you can add a radar mount to raise it up a few inches, which is what I plan to do, but if you are doing a fresh install, you should mount it where less work is needed, ontop of the hump. Also, if you have any gps antennas on the hump, they CANNOT be in the beam of the radar or the radar beam will burn out the gps antenna quickly. You need to raise either the radar or gps antenna higher then the other to avoid interference and damage to other electronics. VHF and radio antennas are not an issue, a satellite radio antenna might be though depending on its placement. I'd move the gps over the radar, much cheaper and easier to do.
 
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