Me wrote:

In article
,
"M.F." wrote:

Does anyone no any good books on marine radar repair?


Unless you hold a valid General Radiotelephone Operators License with
Radar Endorsement, you are not allowed under US Law, to work on
Commercial Marine Radar Equipment.

Me who has one of those.........

I have a GROL with a radar endorsement and would still like to find a
good book on modern radar repair. The FCC test is based on vacuum tube
technology that hasn't been used since the 70's

In article ,
halibutslayer wrote:

I have a GROL with a radar endorsement and would still like to find a
good book on modern radar repair. The FCC test is based on vacuum tube
technology that hasn't been used since the 70's

True enough. Most of the technical stuff involved in maintaince of
modern Maritime Radars would be in the OEM's Operations and Maintainance
Manuals and 99% of the Qualified Tech's in the field gained their current
knowledge via OJT, and not from books that would be obsolete before they
gained an circulation. The basics of Radar Technology was worked out at
MIT in the late 30's after trading the British Magnitron Prototype
for all those Lend - Lease Destroyers.

Bruce in alaska who also has one of those things on the wall......
--
add a 2 before @

"Bruce in Alaska" wrote in message
...
In article ,
halibutslayer wrote:

I have a GROL with a radar endorsement and would still like to find a
good book on modern radar repair. The FCC test is based on vacuum tube
technology that hasn't been used since the 70's

True enough. Most of the technical stuff involved in maintaince of
modern Maritime Radars would be in the OEM's Operations and Maintainance
Manuals and 99% of the Qualified Tech's in the field gained their current
knowledge via OJT, and not from books that would be obsolete before they
gained an circulation. The basics of Radar Technology was worked out at
MIT in the late 30's after trading the British Magnitron Prototype
for all those Lend - Lease Destroyers.

Bruce in alaska who also has one of those things on the wall......
--
add a 2 before @

I also would be interested in what current books or in depth magazine
articles are out there. The days of servos and synchros, long wave guide
runs full of water, etc., are long gone, as are vacuum tubes (except for
maggies). I work on radars quite a bit and a good service manual for the
unit is invaluable, as is a spare magnetron and a spare MIC. Substituting
those one at a time solves the majority of the problems, along with motor
replacement and bad modulator or signal processor circuit assemblies. The
modulator FETS and the power supply FETs fail quite a bit also. And of
course, water damage problems are usually the result of poor installation or
exposed locations.
Although I have seen Raymarine equipment corroded, the problem is always
poor installation. The other brands are just as likely to come in encrusted
with salt, etc. The guys who insist on mounting the all around light in the
lid of a radome are just setting themselves up for water damage later on.
A cheap test instrument for radar transmission is one of those under $ 10
microwave oven leakage meters. Of course, the old neon bulb on a wooden
dowel still works also.
Doug K7ABX

"Doug" wrote in
nk.net:

Although I have seen Raymarine equipment corroded, the problem is
always poor installation. The other brands are just as likely to come
in encrusted with salt, etc. The guys who insist on mounting the all
around light in the lid of a radome are just setting themselves up
for water damage later on. A cheap test instrument for radar
transmission is one of those under $ 10 microwave oven leakage meters.
Of course, the old neon bulb on a wooden dowel still works also.
Doug K7ABX


Naw....Just sit a Raymarine out in a humid environment with its little
rubber drain tube breathing in and out as the sun rises and sets and it
soon fills with condensate water, destroying the pot metal the cheap POS is
made from.

This new unit we got has 4 white plastic "feet" to hold the radome up off
the mounting plate. There's no sealing it, now, but that didn't make any
difference anyways. The mounting bolts go through the hole in the center
of the plastic feet which space the dome about 1/2" off the mount, now. I
don't see that's going to solve the condensate problem, though. It rains
inside the dome through the drain tube, just like a half-empty gas tank
gets condensate water in it, left that way in the sun.

It's NOT a Raytheon, any more.

In article et,
"Doug" wrote:

Of course, the old neon bulb on a wooden
dowel still works also.
Doug K7ABX

You actually use a wooden dowel? I just put the NE2's on a string, and
hang it in front of the Waveguide flange, about an inch or two.


Bruce in alaska How well does an NE2 work on a 2Kw Tx these days?
--
add a 2 before @

Bruce in Alaska wrote in news:bruceg-
:

Bruce in alaska How well does an NE2 work on a 2Kw Tx these days?


Hmm...Might be fun to stick a few NE2s to the outside of the dome on the
new Raymarine 2KW we're about to put up. Then, you might be able to tell
it its really on the air.

Great idea, Bruce....

In article ,
Larry W4CSC wrote:

Bruce in Alaska wrote in news:bruceg-
:

Bruce in alaska How well does an NE2 work on a 2Kw Tx these days?


Hmm...Might be fun to stick a few NE2s to the outside of the dome on the
new Raymarine 2KW we're about to put up. Then, you might be able to tell
it its really on the air.

Great idea, Bruce....



Hope, by the time the RF goes thru the waveguide, rotory joint, and is
dispersed across that little Panel Antenna, the Power Density of the
transmitter pulse will not be sufficent to cause an NE2 to ionize.

It was a good guess however......



Bruce in alaska
--
add a 2 before @

Bruce in Alaska wrote in news:bruceg-
:

Hope, by the time the RF goes thru the waveguide, rotory joint, and is
dispersed across that little Panel Antenna, the Power Density of the
transmitter pulse will not be sufficent to cause an NE2 to ionize.

It was a good guess however......


If we lay out the NE2s leads in 1/2 wave lengths, there should be plenty of
voltage at the end of the 1/2 wave "arms" to fire off 68V of neon.

I'll let you know how it looks....(c;

"Bruce in Alaska" wrote in message
...
In article ,
halibutslayer wrote:
True enough. Most of the technical stuff involved in maintaince of
modern Maritime Radars would be in the OEM's Operations and Maintainance
Manuals and 99% of the Qualified Tech's in the field gained their current
knowledge via OJT, and not from books that would be obsolete before they
gained an circulation. The basics of Radar Technology was worked out at
MIT in the late 30's after trading the British Magnitron Prototype
for all those Lend - Lease Destroyers.

Bruce in alaska who also has one of those things on the wall......
--
add a 2 before @

That triggered a nostalgic moment Bruce, I recall reading the entire series
of the MIT Radiation Lab textbooks published at the end of WWII. The books
had quite a bit of dust on them in my college library when I found them in
the early 60s. It turned out one of my school's physics professors (actually
vice president of the college by then) had written one of them. I think we
more that got our money's worth in the lend-lease trade for the technology
transfer/catalyst from the UK.
Doug K7ABX

Bruce in Alaska wrote in news:bruceg-
:

gained an circulation. The basics of Radar Technology was worked out at
MIT in the late 30's after trading the British Magnitron Prototype
for all those Lend - Lease Destroyers.

Bruce in alaska who also has one of those things on the wall......


Huh?? The first radars were on VHF! They operated on common vacuum tubes,
not microwave magnetrons. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ww2/A591545