Josh — all of the solid-state radar scanners and displays are MUCH more energy efficient than their predecessors. The choice of scanner mostly comes down to whether it’s going to attach to an MFD, or be a black-box unit. If’s it’s going to an MFD, you need to stick with the same manufacturer (obviously…).
Furuno, Garmin, Navico (Simrad/Lowrance/B&G) and Koden all make black-box scanners. You just need to determine which one will be supported by the app you’re going to use. It looks like OpenCPN supports at least the Garmin and Navico. I’ve heard really good things about the Novice BR24, so that might be an option to consider along with the Garmin scanners. Just know that if your laptop fails (not unheard of in salt air…), your radar is just a big boat anchor attached partway up the mast. The purpose-built MFDs are much more robust in the marine environment, IMHO. — Fred Fred Street -- Minneapolis S/V Oceanis (1979 C&C Landfall 38) -- Bayfield, WI > On Aug 10, 2017, at 2:54 PM, Josh Muckley via CnC-List > <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > > Yep CRT, for the radar, and it works...if I actually knew how to use it. I > turn it on from time to time and try to make out contacts but with most of > the inland sailing I do it is rather useless. I've seen the newer digital > radars seem to work well with storm cells and overlay on the > chartplotter...seems much more useful. Oddly enough I literally just spoke > to the local yard about having mast and rig work done this winter and > discussed replacing the radar. > > Since you took interest, I'll entertain your thoughts on replacements. With > the speed at which technology advances I hate spending money on planned > obsolescence items and lean towards OpenSource or at least opensource > compatible solutions. IIRC OpenCPN has a module for the GARMIN HD radar > systems. > > Another reason I don't use the radar regularly is that is is an energy hog. > ~10amps!! It is also down below and doesn't talk to the chartplotter...at > all. It only has NMEA 0183 provisions for course input, time input, sailing > instrument input, magnetic bearing input, no outputs. > > Josh Muckley > S/V Sea Hawk > 1989 C&C 37+ > Solomons, MD
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