Does anyone here have any experience with "broadband" radars?

WOW Robert... your right on!

My son was given one (for his review and opinion) about nine months prior to the Miami boat show where they introduced the product to the market. Course, he is quite the sailor, and cruises the Caribbean back and forth from Galveston to Venezuela every year -

Just last month, he gave it to me - said it didn't do him any good. His opinion of it was that it was really more of a "toy" then a real functional advantage.

As you mentioned - my son said it is really great for the very short range, After that, he said it was OK up to about 10 miles, and not at all different from his onboard radar after that. In fact he said it showed too much for his comfort. (rain clutter, birds, etc.)

My experience with it has been very limited - and I didn't know what he meant about it showing "too much" until I almost had a heart attact only to discover the "targets" headed toward me so fast I could not have moved out of the way for... was indeed two seagulls.

Turning it on and zooming it in or out is about the extent of it's difficultly however. I do know it is fast enough and automatically tuned enough that it shows seagulls out and about around the area of my Marina - and I don't like that. It has target tracking - which is neat if you want to know where your dock neighbor goes - and I will use it, and have been using it - but it really is just something more to break. I can see a real good advantage of it if you were in heavy fog or weather where you could not see. As the target do show up very well and distinctive (I mean you can tell what it is, ie: boat, piling, buoy, etc. To the serious boater, as my son, he says it's not worth the money to have two radar systems and he prefers his old one because of the range.

As for me, well, I guess I will turn it on if and when I run into fog, and maybe again if I get real bored at the helm.

Happy and Safe Boating,

Capt. John

These radar are at size of 6 inches,very clear picture ,like your mobile phone,for vsl fitted with AIS...SUPERB!data available...for stell object..good target reflection...others like wood n fiber not so good....also comes in color crt..as back up onboard our vsl..tokyooils