On Tue, 02 Dec 2003 19:18:13 GMT, Me wrote:

Next, The dashed arc's one sees displayed on radar screens are other
radars that have transmitting frequencies CLOSE to the receive frequency
of your radar. There is a wide range of frequencies that Xband radars
can and do use and the reciver bandwidth is much narrower than the
transmitter frequency range by 20X or so. Transmit frequencies are
determined by the physical properties of the Magnitron of each radar and
are fixed at the MFG, but do move around due to temp, age, ect. This
means that some show up on your screen and some don't. There are three
different bands that Maritime Radars use Sband, Xband, and KaBand. Of
the three Xband is by far the most cxommon. (Orders of Magnitude more)
Sband is only found on VERY BIG VESSELS, and Kaband is used mainly for
Wx search and is extremly rare aboard any vessels except Research
Vessels. None of the radars will cause interference except in their own
Band Class. The Arc's always show from the center of your display, and
don't have any range or direction information associated with them,
other than they TEND to not be there when you antenna isn't pointed
toward the other radar. Targets that have Dashes the trail the target
on your display are a differet thing altogether. They are Active Radar
Transponders, (Racon's) and are used as Position Identification devices.
These are put on significant Navigation Points and are also used for SAR
Activites and ARE required on Lifeboats of SOLAS Required Ships. Almost
all of these a Xband devices. I have seen one or two Sband
installations, but never any Kaband.

Good summary, thanks. One might just add that the lifeboat equipment
is called SARTs , Search And Rescue Transponder. Echoes 9 dots if I
remember correctly. Luckily never seen one.


/Marcus

--
Marcus AAkesson
Gothenburg Callsigns: SM6XFN & SB4779
Sweden
Keep the world clean - no HTML in news or mail !