RD418HD painting arcs, not accurate

[pwagsc]

A lightning event destroyed all my Raymarine gear except my RD418HD radar, or so it seemed. With a new es127 installed, the radar appeared to function normally including tracking MARPA targets. However the resolution of land or objects at sea appear more as streaks (arcs) rather than defined objects (well beyond the 4.9 degree beam width). I have attached a couple of photos to illustrate. The first photo of the Chesapeake Bay (I had not aligned it yet because this was an initial sea trial with new gear) clearly illustrates this. I sailed to the BVI and continued to see this effect with boats and land masses as the second picture also illustrates. Is this "normal" for the 418 radar. Measuring seems to indicate a beam width of 10 to 15 degrees which is not to spec. No amount of fiddling with gain etc seems to change the paint. Both pictures were with the radar in automatic mode on all settings. Please advise if this unit appears to be defective and what I might try next.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum pwagsc,

Thanks for the very good problem description, photos demonstrating the problem, and actions taken to correct the problem. Based upon all of this, it would appear that the radome has suffered a failure of its circuitry as well, quite possibly its LNC (Low Noise Converter). It is recommended that the radome be sent to Raymarine’s Product Repair Center to be bench checked / serviced. Alternatively, as the flat rate for repairing a RD418HD is $975, should the vessel in question be a sailboat, you may want to consider replacing it with the Wi-Fi only version of a Quantum radome, as the street price of this radome is very similar to that of cost of repairing the RD418HD. As repairs carry a 6 month warranty, the 3-year warranty of the new Quantum radome may also be worth consideration. Please click here to view a FAQ addressing the features which differentiate a Quantum radome from a HD Radome.