Sea Ray Radar/GPS

[miketaylor]

I have just bought a 1999 SeaRay 290. It is equiped with a Raytheon radar aerial and un unknown gps aerial ( see pics attached). Sadly, during an earlier life, someone stole the respective display units for these aerials and I am left with the cable terminals in the cockpit.
Please can anyone identify this equipment, tell me what dispay units would be comptible and if they are still available?

A RayMarine expert says:- " It is tough to tell what your vessel had by a picture of the powercords. I think it may have been a Pathfinder Radar such as the RL70 CRC. Unfortunitely these units have been retired quite some time ago and are somewhat difficult to locate on the used market. All the Multifunction displays we manufacture now, are landscape (wider that tall) and not portrait(taller than wider) like the older pathfinder displays. The current Radar antenna (raydome) looks to be a M92650. This would only function with another pathfinder RL70 type radar display."

Any advice would be appreciated.

Mike Taylor

 

[tdschafer]

Time to update! Sorry, I know it's not what you want to hear but I believe it's where you are going to end up. Good Luck.
Todd

 

[Reveler's Revenge]

I have to agree with Todd here. I'm far from an expert but am going through a similar process right now. The good news is when you update all of your electronics you'll know exactly how they are installed and how they should function. I'm looking forward to cleaning up my wiring harness. Here's a current look:

...believe me, it's better if you don't see this.

 

[LTD.330]

My '99 330 has the same electronics on the arch. The display is a RL70 RC, the GPS antenna is a Raystar 112 that feeds into a RayData display. The Raydata display is similar to the ST-60 series and is interconnected with the RL70.

 

[mawyatt]

Mike,

Just noted that the radar beam is in-line with the GPS and TV antennas. This is generally considered not a good practice beause the high energy radar beam can degrade/destroy the sensitve GPS and/or TV low noise amplifiers built into these systems. Consider raising the radar with a mount so the beam is above the GPS and TV antennas. If you decide to upgrade the new Raymarine HD dome RD424HD radar is worth considering. I installed one myself, got the radar from Jim at BOE. It works well. If you want to overlay the radar image over the chart, consider a heading sensor so the heading is known at rest and/or low speeds. The KVH Autocomp unit, also from Jim, works well and interfaces with the display via NMEA 0183. Both the radar and heading sensor are DIU if you are soemwhat handy.

 

[Alex F]

I would do the following:

1. Open the radar dome and look for the model and serial numbers inside. It only should have about 4 screws that hold the dome cover.

2. When you know the radar model now you have a choise of going to RM site and choose competible units. Try to find the newest possible compatible unit, so your purchase will be worth the expense and brings you close to the latest technology with the option of saving existing radar.

3. After choosing couple of candidates I would download their manuals and carefully examine the wires connections to see what matchas your existing wires.

4. Finally, ebay and/or craigslist will be your answer to find the units that RM no longer produces.

There're always options and you've got all winter to do the research and make your choise.

Good luck.