The first 3 hours using Lowrance 3 G Radar

First off, I’ll say radar isn’t for everyone.

Next I’ll say there are people that find themselves in fog or boat at night frequently that will find Lowrance Broadband Radar extremely useful.

I have all of 3 hours of using the radar under my belt. A guy doesn’t need a special license or instruction to figure out what’s going on around his boat I came to find out.

Actually I had a harder time fixing my shifter linkage then learning what was what on the radar screen. (Thanks Andrew and Kerry for the linkage help)

Because Lowrance does not use a magnatron, I was able to mount the antenna any where I selected without worry of personal injury. I was looking on YouTube for radar instructions and found one popular company telling folks not to look at the radar antenna because of the energy coming from it’s pulse style radar. Certainly not something I want in my boat.

When running the G3 takes less then 1.4 amps making it a perfect fit for a small fishing boat like mine. Ok, if they made the antenna the size of a gps puck it would be better.

Lowrance changed the Compass Rose on the latest software version…I was not happy. In the past I’ll changed my specific “in the middle of the channel” trail into a route and the rose would tell me to turn left or right keeping me out of harms way…with the exception of a few trees over the years.

The first thing I did was head up to the dam and start my last years route back to Everts…and turned the radar on the right side of the split screen.
My worries faded fast.

By looking at the center of the compass screen on the left, the red arrow that’s pointing down tells me I’m just a smidgion right of dead on course. The red line indicates where I am and the next waypoint in the route.

Looking over at the radar screen, I’m the little dot in the middle of the circle and there’s a bearing marker (or line) showing my course. The smaller dotted line with the circle at the top end is telling me where my next waypoint is just like it is on the left screen but easier to view.

Just below the 60 degree mark, there’s a fishing boat headed my direction. I can tell it’s moving towards me because of the white trails it’s leaving behind.

While up in the Vermilion, it picked up what I would call a fairly small tree…bigger then a log.

I found by placing my chart over the radar (which I don’t have any photos of yet) the navigational markers are show on the chart where they should be, and the radar shows where they are.

I’m planning on getting out again this week if the weather holds to get some more on the water time before using it in the dark.

Oh yeah, the second photo. Not sure if they are visible or not, but there’s about 30 boats dead ahead. I was picking them up on the radar when I left Everts and thought it was screen clutter.

It’s always good when our new toys serve a practical purpose. Your clients will be some of the safest on the river.

I heard you cant cook Spam if you hold it up to a Lowrance radar?

I was fun to see it work.
I think its a great piece of technology to keep people and equipment safe in those unique situations.

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I heard you cant cook Spam if you hold it up to a Lowrance radar?

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With 1/5 the power output as most cell phone…and Spam being pre cooked, you’ll need to find something else to brown your Spam with Kirt.

Brian, any idea of how much elevation above the water line an object must be to be picked up by radar? Obviously a dead head most likely would be detected, but what about very low profile jon boats?

I know there were john out there, but I can’t say I was looking for them to show up.

I’ll have to check closer on that, but since it’s picking up good sized logs without branches sticking up in the air, I’m going to bet it won’t be a problem.

I’ll get back to you Randy.

I don’t know if lowrance has them (not a lowrance fan) but if you like the radar you’ll love the thermal night vision cameras. Especially on a tight body of water like a river. I can see people from almost a mile and vessels up to 4 miles. Its a great addition to the radar

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Brian, any idea of how much elevation above the water line an object must be to be picked up by radar? Obviously a dead head most likely would be detected, but what about very low profile jon boats?

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Randy, I was having a bit of trouble picking up floating above the water debris last weekend. Fishing boats and all the jon boats I saw (and some I didn’t see) populated the screen well. In fact I’m surprised how easy it is to pick out a boat image even if it’s up tight to shore. In some cases boats were out of my line of sight hidden by trees and it was picking them up.
I have no idea how it can do this because Radar is line of sight as well.

The other oddity was behind me. While I was putzing around by the lock, a gaggle of boats came by. How it picks up behind my boat is puzzling, but it does.

At the end of the day I lowered the “Sea Clutter” to 10 from 50% and it’s picking up everything that shows above the water.

In the first photo below there’s a can directly behind me and a boat being pointed at.

The second photo is the same location, but my finger is pointing to some drift wood coming down river.

The last photo is a barge. Kinda close…when I picked it up on the radar I started driving in a circle to see if I had any dead spots. When I shot the picture was a few moments after I figured I should get my butt out of the way. LOL!