Quantum Accuracy

[Jazevedo]

Dear friends,

This weekend we were holding a fishing tournament in our nautical club, and one of the boats was drifting through the night without fuel, before that I went with my boat in search of him. I used the Axiom 9, Quantum Radar, and AIS 350 sets to search for it. the drifting boat was a 32 foot bass fishing boat. I am not a radar specialist, but I used the radar and disregarded the marks that were also shown in the AIS, so here in Brazil only large vessels use, and to my surprise the target sought in no way was visible. I was using the radar in the automatic settings, but several times I tried to increase the gain and still the target was not visible. Could he have done something different? I looked at the manual now and saw that it has modes, harbur, coastal, offshore and weather, changing the mode would have helped? what would be the way. I was a bit unsure of navigating the night now and hitting on some target. I located the boat after much searching 8 miles away, but even very close it was not visible and the boat had radar reflector

thank You

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Jazevedo,

Radar range will vary depending upon the power of the radar, the height of the antenna, and atmospheric conditions. While Quantum radomes are specified to have a maximum range of 24nm, the maximum line of sight range for spotting other vessels, land, etc. will vary. The following excerpt from the the LightHouse II Release 19 Operations Instructions may prove helpful:



What was the height of the bass boat's radar reflector above the waterline? What is the height of your vessel's radome above the waterline? How much freeboard did the bassboat have? Finally, what were sea/lake conditions (e.g. wave / swell heights)?

[Jazevedo]

Thank You for your answer!