On 2005-06-12 02:11:16 +1000, "Peter Aitken" said:

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

We are looking for a combination radar/chart plotter/fish-depth finder
for our boat. We see some pretty nice looking units from both of these
manufacturers. Does anyone have any general comments one way or the
other?

--
Peter Aitken



On our THIRD 2KW Raymarine radome in Charleston. Damned thing is made of
POT METAL - ZINC! The little rubber tit drain breathes in humidity at
dusk, the water condenses out of it on the potmetal chassis/circuit boards
that are open to the radome environment/magnetron's easily rustable magnet
and the cheap connectors. During the day, the sun makes sure the water
trapped in the dome corrodes everything inside it in the heat and causes
pressure to blow out the drain tit so it can suck in more moisture when the
sun sets to repeat the cycle, over and over, like an empty gas tank every
24 hours. Rots the potmetal chassis into a fine, conductive white powder
that falls on the electronics until it shorts "something" important.
Raymarine's solution is to keep replacing them with another piece of marine
consumer crap just like the old one...no changes, no fix.

Do you really want this on your nice boat?

Furuno...it's gotta be better.


Thanks for the excellent report. In fact I was considering the 2KW
radome. I will keep this in mind.

A word of caution. This is one of Larry's hobby horses and he has a
few. When this first came up many others indicated that they did not
have similar problems. At our marina there is a real mixture of
Raymarine (some very old ones), Furuno, JRC etc. I worked on a
Raymarine 4KW unit that had quite a number of years service and inside
was pristine.

Oh, another point about Larry is that he has opinions on equipment he
has never used or owned so my advice is take it for what it is worth
(you paid nothing for it and that is what it is worth). Logic should
dictate. If the Raymarine scanner has such a glaring defect then in the
land of the lawsuit don't you think some out of work lawyer would have
stirred up a class action lawsuit against Raymarine by now? Just a
thought for the whiplash willey brigade.

--
Regards,
John D Proctor