Bil Hansen wrote:
"Jeff Morris" wrote in message

Hilarious. However, I'm guessing you've never actually sailed on the
ocean, because if you had, you'd appreciated that most ocean buoys
incorporate the same design as the Davis into their fabrication. And
several sizes of the foam buoys you mention incorporate aluminum corner
reflectors instead of the cylindrical type.


Thanks for the gratuitous swipe at my ocean experience! Nicest thing anyone
has said to me all day!

Well, gee, Bil. Al the buoys around here look like giant Davis
reflectors. Do they make them differently in Malaysia? I'm not the one
who brought this up, it was you, remember?



As it turns out, I have a Mobri near my masthead (you're right: I've only
sailed from California to Malaysia, from where I now reply to you, on my
current voyage. I've heaps more ocean to cross and things to learn from more
experience sailors) and I do more or less agree with PBO etc that Mobri
reflectors do not return much of a signal at any angle of heel (I base that
on talking to cargo ships that could not locate me by radar). Because of
that, I don't rely on other ships seeing me: I watch out for them and use a
radar detector when I'm not running my radar.

So, you're saying that you use and recommend a radar reflector that in
you experience doesn't actually work? Yea, that makes sense.




I thought that the PBO tests were more meaningful than the West Marine
tests; PBO also noted that adding extra radar reflectors was not necessarily
the best thing to do, because of possible cancellation effects due to phase
differences. I note also that Nova Marine (www.novamarine.ca) concluded
Davis Echo Master radar reflectors were not that good (compared to the ISO
standard) either. But I've not heard of the Big Dot reflector ever going
into production.

The site essentially says everything is bad, except for theirs which is
not in production. But they say the Mobri is especially bad. One of
the flaws in their Davis test is that they are often hoisted on a
halyard and stay level when the boat is heeled. They one that I used
spun around a lot, which should minimize the problem with nulls.

So, I'm having trouble getting a handle on your position, Bil. Just
which reflector do you recommend?