Radar arch high enough for dingy

[journey on]

Please remember that most gas stations have an 11 ft. canopy. If anything sticks above 11 ft., you will be gassing in the RV lane, which gets clogged. Journey On is below 11' when on the trailer. And below 8 1/2' when in the water.

Journey On is a 25' C-Dory with a forward mounted radar arch. At the time, I did not want the radar emissions going through the cabin. I feel that subjecting everyone on the boat to strong microwave emission is wrong, a personal opinion. The factory mounted it right in back of the anchor light for me, works great.

Plenty of room to slide a dinghy in, if the anchor lite is removed.

BTW, I now have a low emission radar, a Lowrance 3G, best radar I ever owned.

Boris

[thataway]

Boris, your point is well made, but my experience is that most gas stations have a 14 foot or more hight canopy. I may be more aware than most because we often tow with the RV which is a little over 12 foot height. May be more height in Florida or when driving across the country than Calif. I find the biggest problem getting fuel when towing is the room to turn--and usually try for an outside pump if possible. Occasionally even with the truck, I'll have to back out.

It would be rare for the actual beam of the radar to be an issue when you are in the cabin--the max down beam is 15* below horizontal--and many of us have a 3 to 5* down wedge, so the beam would be 12* or less. from the center plane of the radar.

[journey on]

Hm, Bob, I've wondered why I've seen RV's with their top ripped off. Some of the gas stations near me are about 12'. I assume others are above 13' 6". I do know that Journey On is about 11' on the trailer and it has been a close fit at times. If I had a 12' high RV, I'd check the height of any covering when I drove under it. They're usually marked. I assume that the damaged RV's were used to 14' and didn't read the sign.

A radar bean that's a foot above the cabin roof will pass through the cabin in about 4' and go downward at 15 deg. If the radar arch is installed on the rear of the cabin, the people sitting in the front of the cabin will receive some radiation, since the 15 deg is the 1/2 power point. Not much, but it integrated up and I had a choice on placement.

I understand that you use a dedicated radar mount, installed on the front of the cabin, but we were discussing radar arches.

Boris

[localboy]

Low arch installed on our 25 forced me to also install a pedestal to raise the radar over the dinghy. Works perfectly now.