Sea-Me radar reflector

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Anonymous (not verified)
Sea-Me radar reflector
Has anyone had any direct experience with the Sea-Me radar reflector and alarm system?? Link is [url]http://www.sea-me.co.uk/[/url] I am thinking to install one for the Jester Challenge next year and wanted to hear anything good / bad?? Thanks Rory
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Sea-Me radar reflector
Hi, I don't know nothing about your radar, but I want to wish you all the best in the Jester, Regards, Jackie
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Sea-Me radar reflector
Thanks Jackie, If anyone else is interested - the link to the Jester Challenge is [url]http://www.jesterinfo.org/[/url] Cheers Rory
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Sea-Me radar reflector
We researched this a fair bit, seen the kit and talked to some people about it. In the end we have gone for an AIS receiver as we wanted to see what big ships are around (English Channel and North Sea) more than advertise our presence and had a limited budget. Ideally it is sited at the top of the mast and I was not sure how this would work out with or Tiki rig, other than that it looked pretty easy to fit and use, though you might have to do something to ensure the alarm (I think there was one but could be wrong as it was last winter we looked at it) could be heard anywhere on the boat. The single hander I spoke to was keen on it as it had low power consumption and he was more concerned with advertising his presence than monitoring other shipping. I think that a rival has recently appeared on the market.
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Sea-Me radar reflector
Update, the rival is echomax, but it only does one radar band. Seame has a new version out which does 2 radar bands. The Clements have found the Seame useful, they quoted turning it on when they found themselves in an unlit fishing fleet and suddenly all these lights appeared....... Fitting a Seame is going to be our last bit of electronics, we made the final decision this summer when we sailed into a bad fog bank and realise that it would complement the AIS very effectively. Robert
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Sea-Me radar reflector
:) For what its worth, I have been told that stuffing the mast with aluminium foil is one of the best radar reflectors going. And cheap!! It would have a big surface area, and it's always "on". I will be doing this on my Pahi 42. :) katfish
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Sea-Me radar reflector
I have heard the opposite, but not reliably. There has been various trails in Practical Boat Owner over the years which give some good data.
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Sea-Me radar reflector
I talked to 2 other Jester sailors that had Sea-Me systems fitted. One said it was good and the other had problems and said it didn't work at all for him even though the indicator lights on the display showed everything was powered up and normal. For my trans-Atlantic I installed a NASA AIS radar display with a stubby VHF antenna atop the mast. It became my best friend and I would advise any singlehander to install one! I found that ships aclled on VHF with just their heading and position hardly ever answer you - but with AIS you get the ship's name and they answer you straight away. I called ships numerous times to alert them of my position in front of them and found the system invaluable. I contacted NASA and they sent me a second alarm for 5 quid so I had a ship alert in both hulls. Just great. Cheers Rory
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Sea-Me radar reflector
[quote="Rory"] For my trans-Atlantic I installed a NASA AIS radar display [/quote] Rory, Thanks for the recommendation - is this the system that costs just over 200 quid? Do you need to buy the "AIS engine" too or is that built into this model? [quote="Rory"] I contacted NASA and they sent me a second alarm for 5 quid so I had a ship alert in both hulls. Just great. Cheers Rory [/quote] Now that is cool!
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Sea-Me radar reflector
That would be nice though I am not into radar thinggie. I have a yacht for almost 2 years now and I don't put much electronic systems on it. By the way, I am a [url=http://www.essaybank.com/][color=#000000]custom essays[/color][/url] writer and I would like to make this "radar on boats" a topic of my essay.
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Sea-Me radar reflector
Yes this is the 200 squid system, no other engine needed. I have read of folks using the NASA radar display with an existing VHF antenna, but you need a proper antenna splitter and I'm sure if you transmitted on the VHF it would interfere with the AIS info that the NASA display would receive during the radio transmission. I bought a stubby VHF antenna with coax complete for about 45 squid and it worked great. I used the Nasa radar with just a Garmin 72 handheld GPS and used the power cable to the GPS as it has an NMEA output cable that you wire into the Nasa radar. If you already have a chartplotter aboard, then all you would need is the AIS engine and it displays on your existing screen. As I have no plotter the cheap alternative is to buy the Nasa radar that gives you its adequate screen and hook it up to your GPS. I cant praise it enough for when you sail singlehanded. :D Cheers Rory
Anonymous (not verified)
Re: Sea-Me radar reflector
We have the NASA AIS standalone module and find it great, you do not need the AIS engine that is for if you want to view teh data via a PC. The only problem I have with it is that it is always North Up and I sometimes have difficulty in working out where the targets are relative to the boat, but that probably says more about how my head is wired than the unit.