bud-bud, you are talking about using radar in flat calm water, not water with
movement. In anything but flat calm water you can even see a fiberglass
sailboat, let alone a submerged reef or rock.

besides, why are you wandering around in unknown waters in a fog at speed?
dumb.

Steven Shelikoff wrote:
On 28 Jan 2004 02:05:18 GMT, (JAXAshby) wrote:


then how come you are such a dumb squat when it comes to radar?


I probably spend more time as
radar observer, on my week off, than you do in a year.

indeed, you didn't even know you need nearly flat water to see low rocks
with
radar, as witness your statement below:


That may have been true in the 40's and 50's. It's not true anymore.
There are all sorts of techniques modern radars use to find things like
low rocks in sea clutter, from simple ones like scan averaging and
doppler filtering to complex adaptive filters which model the sea
clutter and remove it.

Steve

All true, but I was referring to the standard everyday radar which most
boaters will be using.
Although "sea return" normally is a pain in the butt, it can be useful.
For instance, it can be used to pick up a reef line; in the case above,
it will accent the rock which may be just below or just above the
surface; I've used it to identify a particular boat which throws a nasty
wake that can be seen on radar.
All of the above are not guaranteed and depend on conditions, but when
the conditions are right they can be useful tools.

otn