Sorry, I share Larry's opinion of Raymarine. I saw them replace THREE 4
KW open arrays on my pier alone because they were full of water. The
installer told me they were replacing them all over the area due to a
design fault. Because of this, I bought a Raymarine with a 4KW dome. I
had a good experience with an older Raytheon radar system so I was
trying to stick with them. While out on a trip, it just quit working.
To make a long story short, the guys sent in the dome and display for
repair under warranty. It took something like 8 weeks for it to be
returned, and it still didn't work! Turned out to be a "bad" cable.
Have no idea why it went bad... no punctures, breaks, etc. Good thing I
wasn't out full time cruising at the time. 8 week turnaround at the
Raymarine shop tells me that A. They don't have enough people working
the B. Way too many of their units are coming back for repair, or C.
Both of the above. Ever since I've warned folks away from Raymarine and
suggested Furuno. I've never seen or heard of problems with Furuno like
I've seen with Raymarine. I guess they're just going cheap after
spinning the company off.

Red Cloud® wrote:

Have you ever been to the auto museum in Seal Cove on Mt. Desert Island? It's
worth the trip! Great collection.


Yep, seen them both. Last week there was some kind of classic/vintage
auto gathering out on the island, it was strange to see things like a
'50 Plymouth convertible and a '56 Ford Victoria mingled into the stream
of traffic on Route 3.

I don't go out on the island this time of year unless it is very early
in the morning or am forced into doing a show and tell for visitors.
Too much traffic!

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

Keith wrote:

Sorry, I share Larry's opinion of Raymarine. I saw them replace THREE 4
KW open arrays on my pier alone... snip

Thanks for saying that, it sounds credible and on topic. I don't say
that corrosion cannot happen, but it has not been seen in my
experiences. I used to occasionally buy and sell used marine stuff
including many Raymarine radars, I have seen the insides of many
radomes. I have not had any experience with Raymarine open array
scanners but your experience plants a warning about them in my mind.

I have never seen the corrosion as described by that other person and am
reporting my experience in an attempt to keep things on balance. I do
not consider it to be an inherent or endemic problem with 2KW/4KW
radomes. I would not buy any used radar without opening the dome (or
motor housing on open arrays) for a quick visual inspection.

snip I've never seen or heard of problems with Furuno like
I've seen with Raymarine. I guess they're just going cheap after
spinning the company off.

The older JRC built stuff certainly had a higher quality to it. I
assume the Furunos are still being made or assembled in Japan and that
probably accounts for the difference in quality (and their higher prices
to some extent).

I hate it when a brand that had quality and reliability starts rolling
over and giving those up to maintain sales at competitive prices.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

Thanks to everyone for all the replies. If I had known my question would
start a small battle I might have thought twice!

Dare I ask about Garmin g?

--
Peter Aitken

Red Cloud© wrote:
On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 08:18:26 -0400, Jack Erbes
wrote:
snip
Yep, seen them both.


Both? The last time I was there was about 5 years ago, and I wasn't
aware of another auto museum. Did I simply miss the other one, or is
it relatively new?

No, there is only one on the island. I was thinking of Owl's Head
museum also.

But another great thing for guys/tool queers to see on the island is the
Hull's Cove Tool Barn. They have an incredible range of stuff there and
their prices are reasonable any time of year. If you like older
American made tools and are looking for things that would interest
anyone from farmers to blacksmiths to mechanics/home machinists.

Lots of odds and ends of nuts and bolts and hardware consumables too.
That stuff is nearly all American made antique hardware at much better
prices than you'll pay for the Chinese crap at Home Depot.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

In article .com,
"Keith" wrote:

Sorry, I share Larry's opinion of Raymarine. I saw them replace THREE 4
KW open arrays on my pier alone because they were full of water. The
installer told me they were replacing them all over the area due to a
design fault. Because of this, I bought a Raymarine with a 4KW dome. I
had a good experience with an older Raytheon radar system so I was
trying to stick with them. While out on a trip, it just quit working.
To make a long story short, the guys sent in the dome and display for
repair under warranty. It took something like 8 weeks for it to be
returned, and it still didn't work! Turned out to be a "bad" cable.
Have no idea why it went bad... no punctures, breaks, etc. Good thing I
wasn't out full time cruising at the time. 8 week turnaround at the
Raymarine shop tells me that A. They don't have enough people working
the B. Way too many of their units are coming back for repair, or C.
Both of the above. Ever since I've warned folks away from Raymarine and
suggested Furuno. I've never seen or heard of problems with Furuno like
I've seen with Raymarine. I guess they're just going cheap after
spinning the company off.


I'll second the vote for Furuno over both RayMarine or JRC, which made
most of the older Raytheon commercial radars for years. I installed the
first Furuno Radar on the west coast 35 years ago, when I worked as a
tech for the original importer/dealer. It was on a small harbor tug in
Seattle, Wa. and was still in use 10 years ago, when the vessel owners
sold it. The original Powersupply failed after 2 hours of operation,
and we waited for two weeks for a replacement from the factory in Japan.
Replaced the magnitron twice since then, and the T/R Cell once. Last
time I saw it, its picture the tube was getting a bit dim, but was still
used daily. In just a few years Furuno captured the majority of the
commercial fleets, beating out Raytheon, Decca, Kelvin Hughs, and a
pile of upstarts, like Sitex, Simrad, Icom, Westmar, and the like.
Walk down any dock, where the commercial boys tie up and you will
see Furuno on the majority of the vessels. Reason? Great product,
Great Service, Super Great Support, and a VAST Dealer Network worldwide.
You can go into vertually any Port in the World, and find a Furuno
Dealer with Factory Parts Access. Other outfits will say they are as
good, but Furuno has a track record to prove the point. Other outfits
sell cheaper units, but you pay the difference many times over in Rapair
Costs and Downtime Costs while you wait for parts.


Bruce in alaska
--
add a 2 before @

"Peter Aitken" wrote in
:

Subject: Thanks Was: Raymarine versus Furuno
From: "Peter Aitken"
Newsgroups: rec.boats.electronics

Thanks to everyone for all the replies. If I had known my question would
start a small battle I might have thought twice!

Dare I ask about Garmin g?

--
Peter Aitken



Garmin's ok. I don't like their UNBALANCED NMEA cables which make it easy
for the SSB to tear up the network, but the Garmin 185
GPS/chartplotter/sonar on Lionheart came from the old Endeavour 35 and
still makes a great backup.

I have a Garmin 725 VHF walkie talkie. The first one leaked but Garmin
simply replaced it. I'm still using it. I like it because it's LOUD!

As to the flamewar....This just proves you did a great job bringing up a
good subject for the group. Ya done good! Any question that doesn't
result in a flamewar (or someone punching someone else off the dock at your
marina) isn't worth answering, anyways....(c; Your score is determined by
how many irate replies it generates and for how many months it can sustain
itself without you pumping it up to keep it going....hee hee. None of them
are afraid to flail away when they're a thousand miles off and out of
punching range. This is nothing. Go read rec.boats for a week. How
awful!

--
Larry

You know you've had a rough night when you wake up and your outlined in
chalk.

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
"Peter Aitken" wrote in
:

Subject: Thanks Was: Raymarine versus Furuno
From: "Peter Aitken"
Newsgroups: rec.boats.electronics

Thanks to everyone for all the replies. If I had known my question would
start a small battle I might have thought twice!

Dare I ask about Garmin g?

--
Peter Aitken



Garmin's ok. I don't like their UNBALANCED NMEA cables which make it easy
for the SSB to tear up the network, but the Garmin 185
GPS/chartplotter/sonar on Lionheart came from the old Endeavour 35 and
still makes a great backup.

I have a Garmin 725 VHF walkie talkie. The first one leaked but Garmin
simply replaced it. I'm still using it. I like it because it's LOUD!

As to the flamewar....This just proves you did a great job bringing up a
good subject for the group. Ya done good! Any question that doesn't
result in a flamewar (or someone punching someone else off the dock at
your
marina) isn't worth answering, anyways....(c; Your score is determined by
how many irate replies it generates and for how many months it can sustain
itself without you pumping it up to keep it going....hee hee. None of
them
are afraid to flail away when they're a thousand miles off and out of
punching range. This is nothing. Go read rec.boats for a week. How
awful!


LOL! There sure is an interesting group of people here. Hopefully I will
have a report and photos soon - we head for the coast tomorrow to sea-trial
the Pursuit and Grady White and make our decision (and write many checks I
am sure).


--
Peter Aitken

"Peter Aitken" wrote in
:

LOL! There sure is an interesting group of people here. Hopefully I
will have a report and photos soon - we head for the coast tomorrow to
sea-trial the Pursuit and Grady White and make our decision (and write
many checks I am sure).


--
Peter Aitken



I've posted a few photos to alt.binaries.pictures.sports.ocean which is a
dead newsgroup in the alt series. Post any and all pictures there, which
is lots easier than creating webpages for the spammers....

--
Larry

You know you've had a rough night when you wake up and your outlined in
chalk.