Night Radar on the River

I’ve been scratching my head for a couple months on where to mount the radar antenna in the ol’ Lund.

With the help of Ido’s Sauger, my custom Saugerbuilt stainless mount was delivered yesterday and the antenna was mounted.

The mount has a quick disconnect for times of close quarter boating in and under trees and has a 5 degree drop built in to compensate for bow rise. The experts agree this should work out great for the range I’m looking for on the river.

Saugerbuilts custom stainless service took the time to understand the workings of the antenna and manufactured a mount to optimize the performance of the radar.

Awesome job Dan!

There’s some coin.

So why the radar? Safety?

I thought this was the plan BK…The new IDO Radar hat.

It will be interesting where we will be in 5 years with technology changing so fast.

I was watching Salmon Showdown last week and saw some of the high buck boats are using FLIR for running at night and fog.

FLIR video

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There’s some coin.

So why the radar? Safety?

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Yeah, it’s not going to help me catch anymore fish.

I was intrigued by it after seeing it operate in Chris Meyers boat a while back.

I boat a pretty good distance each night with clients. I use a light and the routes programed into my Gen 2 to get us safely back to Everts in the middle of the night.

One fella asked why fog lights would work. The quick answer is 2 fold. Mounting and running with fog lights (docking lights) covers up the red and green navigational lights. That’s not allowed.

A spotlight has glare, takes one hand to run it and works for a couple hundred feet at best in front of the boat.

By adding radar, I’ll be able to see navigational markers, floating trees (above water) and other vessels (with or without their lights on) along with shoreline as far as the river is straight.

As the disclaimer on the Lowrance start up screen says “a good captain uses more then one form of navigation”.

I think it’s going to be worth the cash laid out for it, but I’m not certain until I have it on the water.

Next purchase? Night vision googles! LOL!

PS it will also pick up the yellow flashing light of a submarine on the Mississippi – I know Rootski was going to ask.

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There’s some coin.

So why the radar? Safety?

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Yeah, it’s not going to help me catch anymore fish.

I was intrigued by it after seeing it operate in Chris Meyers boat a while back.

I boat a pretty good distance each night with clients. I use a light and the routes programed into my Gen 2 to get us safely back to Everts in the middle of the night.

One fella asked why fog lights would work. The quick answer is 2 fold. Mounting and running with fog lights (docking lights) covers up the red and green navigational lights. That’s not allowed.

A spotlight has glare, takes one hand to run it and works for a couple hundred feet at best in front of the boat.

By adding radar, I’ll be able to see navigational markers, floating trees (above water) and other vessels (with or without their lights on) along with shoreline as far as the river is straight.

As the disclaimer on the Lowrance start up screen says “a good captain uses more then one form of navigation”.

I think it’s going to be worth the cash laid out for it, but I’m not certain until I have it on the water.

Next purchase? Night vision googles! LOL!

PS it will also pick up the yellow flashing light of a submarine on the Mississippi – I know Rootski was going to ask.

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sadly if you actually wanted a good pair of Night vision goggles I know a place you can buy them.

Glad I could help sir!

You are going to need trim tabs on that to help get the bow out of the water?

That cool I hope it works awesome kind neat to have.

So everyone if its a nice day outside and BK is in his boat fishing and all of a sudden he races off the water or turns follow him. Follow him. He now has “eyes in the sky”.

Get that boat out of the garage I need to check it out.

Here I keep thinking it is a weather radar and you got it because you were tired of cleaning up the wet spot where I would go into the fetal position on your boat every time I saw distant lightning.

Yeah, I know you have that on the Lowrance already, but htat doesn’t stop me.

Pug, that stain will never come out.

Actually it will pick up weather. I need to run it for a while but if it works well and then between the weather radio on the marine band and radar on the cell phone, I might be able to polity leave Sirius In-Land Weather.

Pug that stain,will never come out!

Don’t call him a stain Brian! And you said he did come out!

I gotcha.

I’ve got a heck of a nice spotlight bar on my boat, but it doesn’t do you a lick of good when the fog is thick.

Would make for some nervous trips on the MN River with dead heads all over, no GPS Mapping, Fog that only lets you see 10′, and knowing that your GPS track from the trip out included several close encounters with deadheads

Money well spend when you have clients on board. I just slow down and also don’t give a rip about the red/green light when my 5,400 lumen light bar is on and the 3,000,000 candlepower spotlight is ready by my side.

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I just slow down and also don’t give a rip about the red/green light when my 5,400 lumen light bar is on and the 3,000,000 candlepower spotlight is ready by my side.

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Hit the nail.

The Minni is different in many ways. Zero commercial traffic after a point and very little at any point. Almost zero tuna boats and I believe the fishermen stay to a much smaller area.

We have the Coast Guard, Sheriff from (at least) two county’s and two DNR’s. ‘Course I’ve only seen one Sheriff boat side in 10 years of being on the water after dark. He had a report of a boat in trouble near Prescott in thick fog. I think someone called on us because we were the only knuckleheads out.

Toss in some the dead heads and you guys plan for more time getting back then I would if boating the same distance.

Radar is not going to be everyone’s tool.

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Radar is not going to be everyone’s tool.

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I’ve priced them, but fell over shortly after and quit thinking about them Darn cool. Should keep everyone safe and give you more time to fish.

Minni is my favorite body of water. Can’t count how many days i’ve been on that river and never seen another person. It’s always changing, new dead heads every day. I’ve been on that river in record high and low levels and everything in between
But like i said, it’s anything but relaxing when you have a motor with a prop and your not anchored lol.

BK what do the mounting instructions say about placement.

I looked at them once and thought the one I looked at stated it should be mounted above where people are located. It didn’t want the radar waves in line with people. Just curious

But then Maybe spam gives one great immunity lol

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But then Maybe spam gives one great immunity lol

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The unknown bennies of the mystery meat!

I’m thinking you were looking at the old radar TTF.

The G3 (and G4) uses a Broadband that’s not harmful to humans or rats in California lavatories.

Here’s a clip of the info and a link below.

Unparalleled Short Range Target Discrimination

Lowrance Broadband Radar™ provides amazing target resolution, even at an unprecedented 1/32 nm range. Docks, channel markers, moored vessels and other critical targets are displayed with pronounced clarity and separation, for added safety and confidence in close quarters.

Broadband Radar™ technology eliminates the “main bang” of pulse radar — an obscured viewing “dead zone” immediately around the boat — which prevents display of any close-in hazards.

Virtually No Radiation for Safe, Flexible Installation on Any Boat Lowrance Broadband Radar™ transmits at 1/10,000 the power of typical pulse radars, emitting 5-times less energy than an average cell phone! So, Broadband 3G™ Radar is safe to mount in locations never before possible. Plus, with the lowest DC power draw of any X-band marine radar, it’s the first and only radar ideally suited for sailboats and other fishing or cruising boats with limited power.

Link to Lowance Radar Page<

If the catfishing is slow perhaps you and your clients could shoot down migs.

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If the catfishing is slow perhaps you and your clients could shoot down migs.

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I looked at them once and thought the one I looked at stated it should be mounted above where people are located. It didn’t want the radar waves in line with people. Just curious

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X2. You are going to cook like a piece of meat in a microwave oven. That and probaly fry electronics. Came too close to one of those on the Croix and it sizzled my GPS puck. Then it happened again on P2 when a tug buzzed too close at night. Fried the GPS puck again.

-J.

Old style pulse radar Jon. Read my post three up.

On the other hand I was planning on taking Jeff Huberty out for it’s trail run.

The next thing you will see is passive sonar so you can listen to the fish.

Holy crap that’s a big puck!

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On the other hand I was planning on taking Jeff Huberty out for it’s trail run.

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If thats the case, I should have tipped it 5 deg the other way…

With all of the RF energy that the radome antenna puts out you can probably nuke some spamwiches if you set the can near the antenna….plus make your clients sterile.

Praktisch keine Strahlung für sichere, flexible Installation auf jedem Boot Lowrance Broadband Radar ™ überträgt auf 1/10, 000 die Macht der typischen Pulsradargeräte, emittieren 5-mal weniger Energie als ein durchschnittliches Handy! Also, ist Breitband 3G ™ Radar sicher nie zuvor möglich an Orten montieren. Plus, mit der niedrigsten DC Leistungsaufnahme von jedem X-Band Marineradar, es ist das erste und einzige Radar ideal für Segelboote und Fischerboote oder das Kreuzen mit begrenzter Leistung geeignet.

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Praktisch keine Strahlung für sichere, flexible Installation auf jedem Boot Lowrance Broadband Radar ™ überträgt auf 1/10, 000 die Macht der typischen Pulsradargeräte, emittieren 5-mal weniger Energie als ein durchschnittliches Handy! Also, ist Breitband 3G ™ Radar sicher nie zuvor möglich an Orten montieren. Plus, mit der niedrigsten DC Leistungsaufnahme von jedem X-Band Marineradar, es ist das erste und einzige Radar ideal für Segelboote und Fischerboote oder das Kreuzen mit begrenzter Leistung geeignet.

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Well sure if you put it that way, of course

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On the other hand I was planning on taking Jeff Huberty out for it’s trail run.

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Glad your taking him out on the trial run and not me. Does look pretty sweet though.

Hi,
when the small radar domes were introduced a couple of years ago at the Bass Master Classic (weekend) a couple of the sponsored pros were mounting their domes on a standup seat pedestal post in front of the main motor (post plus hold down straps for their 70 plus MPH runs!!!). Where you have your dome mounted now, one would think you would be giving up (my guess) maybe 30% of your scan with information you already know (IE. where you and your boat are).

Just a thought,
Roger

Thanks Roger,

Yes, it was a trade off. I need the seat in the front of the boat so that was out.

Any other mounting location like in front of the consul or on the passenger side would require about 40 inches of height to clear my vision.

According to the experts I’ll lose what’s behind me, which I really don’t care about except if one of those 70 mph bass boats sneaks up on me from behind.

I can’t wait to get the rest of the wiring and some re wiring done to get it on the water. The Saugerbuilt company has already said “we’ll make it work”, so I just need to get it to float or roll it out onto I-94 to see how it works.