On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 10:44:53 +0100, "Aron Tvedt"
wrote:

There is something I dont understand about radars. I have a JRC 1500 radar
(16 miles), in according to the manual, the antenna is supposed to send out
a radarbeam of 2000 watt. My engines (yanmar 4lha htp) generator produses
12v 80A (1120watt).

I dont use the radar all the time, but if I did, would the engine be able to
produse enough power to my batteries?

Some experienced sailors say my radar cannot have an effect of 2000watt. It
is the same effect of an electical owen.


Radar uses a pulsed transmission, and the advertised power is the peak
power during a pulse. Since a radar actually transmits for much less
than 1% of the time, the average power consumption is much less than
1% of the advertised power - for one 2KW radar I had, I calculated
that the average power used by the transmitter was only 1 watt! The
fuse in the power feed to that set was only 2.1 amps, and I could run
the radar for hours on a sailboat (while sailing) with no concern
about running out of power.

Most radars will use more power for the display, and to turn the
antenna, that for the transmitter.


--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb (at) interchange.ubc.ca
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