In article ,
"Geoffrey W. Schultz" wrote:

I have a Furuno 1621 MkII radar that I've never been happy with. At this
point I believe that the radome has basically failed and I'm planning on
replacing the entire system.

snipped for brevity

My typical use of radar is at night where I have the range set to about 8
nm or to watch for squalls, where the extended range would be useful.

There's a huge difference in cost between the two. The 2KW unit runs
around $900 and the 4KW unit runs about $1600. Based upon my usage and
setup, is the additional cost worth it? Are there other things that I
should be thinking of?

Thanks, Geoff

The basic difference is that the 4Kw T/R Unit will have a better modulaor
and pulse forming network than the 2kw T/R. If it has a larger antenna,
then it will have a correspondingly smaller Horozontal Beamwidth, which
means it will discriminate between two closely spaced targets at a
greater range. It will also tend to show returns from smaller targets,
like logs and floating debris. The receivers will be very similar in
Noise Figure and Sensitivity, but the bigger Transmitter Pulse and
Antenna Gain (If a bigger antenna) will make it a much better radar.
Also bigger T/R's usually have the PPR (Pulse Repetition Rate) split
into more ranges so you have a much nicer Target Definition, than the
standard two on the small T/R's. If you can afford it, Bigger is Better.


Bruce in alaska
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