A Radar Buyer’s Guide

Motor Boating Magazine has a buyer’s guide for picking the right radar for your boat. They help you decide what kind of radar you should buy, and they give some examples ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. The models they discuss are JRC 1000MK as the least costly stand-alone currently on the market, Furuno’s 1623, Simrad�s new CA series, the JMA-5100 Black Box series, Garmin’s new 2- and 4-kW models, Maptech’s i3 and Nobeltec. They mention Raymarine, Si-Tex and Northstar but more for their potential links to a PC.
“With nine manufacturers�six stalwarts and three new ones�offering more than 100 models, the choices can boggle the mind. There are stand-alone units for anticollision protection. There are multifunction units that link with chartplotters, GPSs and fishfinders. Some are configured as sensors for onboard personal computers (PCs). Others are black box models that connect to a sophisticated network and a large, sunlight-viewable monitor.”