In article ,
Wayne.B wrote:

On Thu, 05 Jan 2006 12:05:25 GMT, Commodore Joe Redcloud
wrote:

The Furuno is a fairly inexpensive RADAR and yet according to you, it is
doing
nearly impossible things.

=========================================

I'd be happy to demonstrate my Furuno to anyone who wants to see for
themselves. It has significantly better close in range than either
of my older Raytheon units.


Ok, I feel a Furuno Story coming on....... Many years ago (1975) I
installed one of the first Furuno KR-124 Radars imported into the
US, on a 85' Yatch in Lake Union, Seattle, Washington. This vessel
had a Professional Skipper & Crew. (ex coastie) Takes about 3 hours
if the antenna, and display are already mounted, and the interconnect
cable is already run but not terminated. Skipper was a sharpeyed older
gent, who wasn't sure that this kid,( myself) knew anything about
"Anything", and was determined to keep an eye on the whole process.
Got everything connected and fired up the radar, to do the Sea Trial,
and get the Heading Flash Reed Switch set to ships head. Nice clear
amazing picture on that analog display. As we were pulling away from the
dock, the skipper looks at the display and asks, "What is all that
clutter, down here in the port quadrant at .25 miles?". I look, and see
a bunch of targets, close together, and then look out with a set of
Binocs, and see a small group of Seagulls sitting on the water. "It is
that group of Gull's over there" says I. He says, "Bull ****". "No",
says I, "Wait till that seaplane taxi's over there, and they all take
flight, and the targets will all disappear of the scope". Sure enough
the Seaplane taxi's right thru the group, and all the targets disappear
from the scope except one. "Look, see they all disapperaed, just like I
said" skipper looks in the scope and says, "Nope, kid there is still one
target there". "Well", says I, "There MUST be something in the water,
over there". Skipper says "Bull ****, I can't see anything there with
these glasses, but we'll just cruise on over and look." So we idle on
over, and sure enough, here is a styrofoam cup floating in the water.
We pick it up, ad set course for the Can, right off GasWorks Park to
use as a Heading Flash setup target, and sure enough when we get .25
Miles from where the cup was, the skipper checks the scope and no more
target. "Hell, that is one great Radar to be able to pick up a strofoam
cup at a quarter mile. Never had that kind of luck with any of my
Raytheon Radars". I just smiled.........

Of course you have to remember that the KR-124 was a true 9Kw radar,
with a real good slotline 3Ft antenna, an excellent Logrythmic
IF Strip, and brand new 1N415E Crystals. When compared to what was
out in the fleet at the time, (Raytheon 1500's,1700's 1900's and Decca
101's and 202's) this was an order of magnitude leap in commercial
radar technology. And it didn't require ANY service for years at a
time, which really made the semi-monthly Raytheon Service look BAD.
That radar and it's follow on KR-248, and KR-448 is what MADE the Furuno
Name in the High Seas Fishing Fleets and North Pacific Coastal Freight
Fleets.

Bruce in alaska
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