BOATS & GEAR Electronics
House Party New electronics are reducing stress and increasing convenience in the pilothouse.
M
ystery, convenience and stress are terms that can be used to describe the wheelhouse atmosphere mentioned in this story and the generating role played by wheelhouse electronics. For the mystery and stress components, the goal is to reduce or eliminate their effects. The convenience factor would be a welcome addition to any wheelhouse. Let’s start with Furuno and the mystery component, followed by the convenience of Simrad’s multifunction display controls and the Si-Tex SP-38 autopilot for stress relief.
FURUNO It’s a dark night along the coast, with intense rain pushed by a stiff wind. It’s a perfect time for those doing what they do best and when they think they can’t be seen. On the other hand, if you are in the surveillance business — police, customs, border patrol, Coast Guard — this isn’t the ideal time and you need all the help you can get to stop those that specialize in conducting operations hidden from law enforcement agencies. Being able to peer into the darkness and through the rain drop particles is a big advantage, one that comes with two of Furuno’s newest magnetron radars, the FAR-2258BB, an
Furuno MITAGS
By Michael Crowley, Correspondent
Furuno’s new FAR-2258BB radar has double the output power of Furuno’s conventional navigation radars.
X-band radar with 50 kW of output power and the FAR2268DSBB, an S-band radar with 60 kW of output power. Both replace radars — FAR-2157 and FAR-2167DS — that were in Furuno’s FAR-2XX7 radar line that has been retired. The FAR-2258BB and the FAR-2268DSBB offer “double the output power of our conventional navigation radars” said Matt Wood, Furuno’s national sales manager. That provides about 20% additional detection range. Speaking of the FAR2258BB, Wood said, “It’s optimized to see very small targets on the water.” How small? Commercial fishermen like it because it picks up bait broils on the surface of the water, leading their vessel to a pack of fish. And the FAR-2268DSBB has a wide enough bandwidth that raindrops don’t block the entire radar wave, allowing the radar to detect hard targets such as birds diving on bait fish on a reef. “A data point to keep a boat off
Simrad
Simrad’s family of NSO EVO3S displays on 16”, 19” and 24” screens.
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www.workboat.com • APRIL 2022 • WorkBoat
