1. Odin Sletten Technical Sales Engineer Navico Denmark
Navico BR24 Radar
Odin Sletten
Technical Sales Engineer
Navico Denmark

2. A Short History of Radar
In 1917, Nikola Tesla first established the principles for primitive radar units
In 1935, The British invented and patented the first radar for aircraft defence
In 1950, Decca introduced the first marine pulse radar utilising a magnetron, which eventually trickled down into recreational boats…
© Navico Company Confidential

3. 60 Years of Development
© Navico Company Confidential

4. Weaknesses of Traditional Radar
User expertise required
Blurs and distorts objects, making it difficult to interpret surroundings and navigate safely
Obscures objects closest to the boat, where visibility is most important for collision avoidance
Difficulty distinguishing targets from clutter - requires experience to safely operate
Inconvenient installation and operation
Magnetron takes several inconvenient minutes to warm up
Magnetron has a limited life, and is expensive to replace
Large cables and connectors
Power consumption is impractical for small boats and most sailboats
Emissions require mounting away from humans and other electronic equipment. Most small boats have no room at all
© Navico Company Confidential

5. First X-band Radome Radar
© Navico Company Confidential

6. Navico’s BroadBand Radar
“Revolutionary improvement in situational awareness” - the best short-range resolution and target discrimination of any X-band marine radar
Radar is finally easy enough for a novice – identifies targets clearly with no ‘tune control’, as sea and rain clutter rejection is 5-10 times better than a pulse radar
Navigation is truly easy, even at an unprecedented 1/32 NM range, with unparalleled resolution and clarity within two metres of the dome, with no ‘main bang’, ‘zero range adjust’, or close-range sidelobe distortion
© Navico Company Confidential

7. Close Range Performance
© Navico Company Confidential

8. Comparison and Main bang
BroadBand Radar, 1/16 NM range
4 kW HD pulse radar, 1/8 NM range
© Navico Company Confidential

9. Comparison and Main bang
suppression
Broadband Radar, 1/16 NM range
4 kW HD pulse radar, 1/8 NM range
© Navico Company Confidential

10. Close Range Performance
© Navico Company Confidential

11. Close Range Performance
Approximate position
of boat
Moored boat
Foot bridge
4 kW HD pulse radar
Broadband Radar
© Navico Company Confidential

12. Superb Resolution Pile moorings Moored boat BroadBand Radar
4 kW HD Pulse Radar
© Navico Company Confidential

13. Seaclutter Performance
Two boats, towing into the harbour
BroadBand Radar ¼ NM
No sea clutter rejection applied
4 kW HD pulse radar, 1/2nm
Sea clutter rejection 50%
© Navico Company Confidential

14. What makes the difference?

15. Traditional Radar
The radar transmits a powerful, but very short pulse, at a fixed frequency.
The pulse propagates outwards in a direction determined by the angle of the rotating radar antenna at the time of transmission.
The radar then switches to receive mode to listen for reflections.
If the pulse reflects off an object, it will return to the receiver with a delay proportional to the distance of the object from the transmitter.
The antenna angle at the time of pulse transmission equals the direction of the object.
© Navico Company Confidential

16. BroadBand Radar FMCW = Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave
Time
1ms
4ms
9.41GHz
9.4GHz
FMCW = Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave
Transmits a ‘rising tone’ (Tx wave) with linear increasing frequency
The wave propagates out from the transmitter retaining the frequency it had when it was transmitted
If it reflects off an object, it will return to the receiver, still at the frequency it had when originally transmitted
Meanwhile the transmitter continues to output an increasing frequency
© Navico Company Confidential

17. BroadBand Radar
Frequency Difference in Transmitted and Received Signals
Frequency
Time
At any instant in time, Tx freq is higher than Rx freq Tx
Rx – retains same frequency it had when it was transmitted
Time delay
The difference in the currently transmitted and currently received frequencies, coupled with the known rate of frequency increase, allows a time of flight to be calculated, from which we can calculate distance.
© Navico Company Confidential

18. Unique Advantages

19. Solid State – No Magnetron
“Start faster, go longer” - 100% solid state RF design – no magnetron! Provides InstantOn™ power up and low power consumption
Eliminates 2-3 minutes warm-up time typical of magnetron pulse radars
Conserves power; operating power drain is ~30% less than the best 2 kW radar (<1/20 in standby mode) – extremely beneficial for sailboats and smaller power boats
No limit on transmit usage lifetime – typically 2-3,000 hours for a magnetron pulse radar
© Navico Company Confidential

20. Two Antenna Arrays RX TX
© Navico Company Confidential

21. Totally Safe
“Incredibly approachable” - Totally safe RF transmitted emissions and flexible installation setup allows you to mount the radome anywhere
Extremely low power - less than 1/10th of the transmitted emissions of a mobile phone; install in any position, even on the smallest of boats
© Navico Company Confidential

22. Proven Safety © Navico Company Confidential Page 22
Conclusion: Human exposure level to radiation outside the radome is 0.45 W/m2, well below the general public safety emission level of 10 W/m2. Included is the possible case of mechanical failure of the motor or drive belt with the antenna pointing into a fixed direction.
2,8 m (9.3 ft)
Standard 4 kW pulse radar
0 m (0 ft)
New Navico Broadband radar
1,4 m (4.6 ft)
Standard 2 kW pulse radar
Safe Distance
Radar Type
© Navico Company Confidential
Page 22

23. Easy Installation
“Incredibly approachable” - Totally safe RF transmit emissions and flexible installation setup allows you to mount the radome anywhere
Extremely low power - less than 1/10th of the transmitted emissions of a mobile phone; install in any position, even on the smallest of boats
Super small custom 13.5 mm RJ45 connector and round 9 mm pre-connected radar cable allows simple bridge tube installations
© Navico Company Confidential

24. Radar Interface Radar Interface Box Fully watertight
Small RJ45 connector
© Navico Company Confidential

25. Connector Radar Dome Connection External watertight connector
Same footprint as today’s 2 kW scanner
© Navico Company Confidential

26. Mutltiple Displays
“Incredibly approachable” - Totally safe RF transmit emissions and flexible installation setup allows you to mount the radome anywhere
Extremely low power - less than 1/10th of the transmitted emissions of a mobile phone; install in any position, even on the smallest of boats
Super small custom 13.5 mm RJ45 connector and round 9 mm pre-connected radar cable allows simple bridge tube installations
Compatible with a wide range of Navico multifunction displays and heading sensors
© Navico Company Confidential

27. Multiple Displays NSE8 NSE12 HDS-10 HDS-10m HDS-7 HDS-7m HDS-5 HDS-5m
HDS-5x
HDS-8
HDS-8m
GB40
NX45 12”
NX40 8”
© Navico Company Confidential

28. The Highlights Super high resolution
No blind spot at center (mainbang)
Totally safe, 0.1 W TX – install anywhere
InstantOn – no warm up time
Lower power consumption, no standby power
Five times better sea and rain clutter performance
Easy to install – very small connector
© Navico Company Confidential

29. Inherent Differences between the technologies
The Differences Between Pulse and FMCW Radars
Summary from a Technical Briefing by Bill Mullarkey from Navigate-us.com
N.B This was purely from theoretical analysis, no practical testing was made
Inherent Differences between the technologies
Characteristic
Broadband (FMCW)
Pulse
Short range target detection
Better
Worse
Long range target detection
Visibility of close in targets
Target resolution in azimuth
Same
Target resolution in range
Sea clutter suppression
Power requirements
Similar
Requires standby period No
Yes
Vulnerability to interference from other radars
Difficult to solve
Easy to solve
Vulnerability to onboard reflectors
Potentially a problem
Not a problem
Potential for future development
Only just begun
Mature technology
© Navico Company Confidential

30. Long Range Performance
Maximum range for any radar under ideal circumstances:
Scanner height
Target
Object at sea level
Small boat (2 m high)
Big launch (6 m high)
2 metres
3.1 miles
6.3 miles
8.5 miles
3 metres
3.8 miles
7.0 miles
9.2 miles
4 metres
4.4 miles
7.5 miles
9.8 miles
__________________________________________________________________________
So….. there is no possible way a radar on a small/medium boat can see a large launch at more than 10 miles
But… It may be possible to see rain or high land features beyond 10 miles.
© Navico Company Confidential

31. Further Enhancement
Navico’s R&D teams have developed technologies, which bring interference from other radar and onboard reflectors to a minimum or even totally eliminates them.
This also means we are not depending on already patented technologies, which would have influenced the price of the radar.
© Navico Company Confidential

32. Power Requirements Power consumption transmitting is only 17 W
30% less than a 2 kW radar
50% less than a 4 kW radar
Power consumption in standby is only 1.6 W
The BroadBand radar has no magnetron to heat!
© Navico Company Confidential

33. Not Considered in the Report
The very low TX power of the BroadBand radar will often not trigger Racons and SARTs.
Racons are ’active radar reflectors’ on some major buoys used mainly by commercial vessels for long distance radar navigation.
The BroadBand radar cannot be used as the primary radar for rescue vessels, but serves as an outstanding no. 2 radar for close range search.
© Navico Company Confidential

34. Additional Benefits No 30 m blind spot at centre (mainbang)
Easy to operate. No tuning or adjusting required
Very low sidelobe effects
Totally safe, 0.1 W TX – install anywhere
No magnetron that wears out over time
Easy to install – 9 mm cable and very small connector
Easy to dismantle – external connector at radome
© Navico Company Confidential

35. Questions?
Thank you