Hi all I have a small Bertram 38' convertible with an open ray radar. I am planning to by a Tracvision C3 satellite, but there is a problem, I have no idea where to mount the unit. I have asked Tracvision the same question and all they said is not to mount it in the radars beam, so I did some more research and I have seen boats with the exactly same radar like mine, mounted directly in front of the radar. And know I am confused and need help. Thanks
I believe they are refering to situations when you are running the radar and the Tv at the same time. I presume, on small boats this will hardly be the case, so that might be the reason why you've seen installations like that.
Many antennas that we fit are close to the radars and work fine. The TracVision antenna must be kept out of line with nearby radars, the radar's energy levels may overload the antenna’s frontend circuits, so be careful. For an idea installation, the antenna should be mounted about four feet above and four feet away from the radar, this is the center of the radar and the center of the antenna. The best placement for the TracVision antenna is above the radar. However, if there will be a significant horizontal separation between the radar and TV dome (at least 8 to 10 feet). The TracVision antenna can be placed below the radar as there will be little chance of signal blockage. I have just got back from working on the Inevitable, they have just had two new seatel 5004's with an arbatrator. these are below the radar's and work perfect. Let me know how you get on...
Hi So you are saying that the dome can be mounted next to the radar, just like I have seen with other boats, just like on the picture.
I think that it should be fine if it is 4 feet away from the radar. is there anywhere else where you can mount it?
Hi Here is a picture of my boat my boat. If I have to mount the dome above the radar, then I have to make a structure, and by doing so I might just upset the old style design.
Yeah i know what you mean by it won't look as nice as it does. Have you tried ringing any dealers who can help you with the installation?
Hi Well here in South Africa, you have to buy the unit from the dealer or they won't install it, in other words if I had to buy a dome from America and asked them to install it they won't do it, and a dome from them costs almost a R100.000, so I am going to do it myself. following structure I think will go really well with my boat, but where do you get one or how do you make one?
Hi again. i think you might have to manually make the stand yourself.. I have an email for our dealer, if you would like that to ask some questions maybe, and to be supplied with one just PM me. When we have done installs, we have had a stand personally made for the antenna, but i am talking about SeaTel 4004's which are alot bigger.
Hi All For what its worth. Having worked on all of the various satellite systems large and small for more than 10 years including time served at Sea Tel. In short, All Satellite TV and/or V-sat Sytems no matter the Make Model and Size should be installed above Radar Scanners. Unfortunatly this is almost impossible to acheive depending on the size of vessel and satellite system to be installed upon it. The reason is due to the LNB being zipped by the Radar Scanner and such deterioating the LNB until it can longer receive the desired satellite freqencies. For e.g. Sea Tel have tried to limit damage to their LNB's by fitting whats called a Re-ject filter which should eliminate the Radar X-band Scan, but this does not always work. We have found different Types of LNB's are more tollerant to the Radar X-band Scan, and with the asssitance of the MOD RFA we are currently testing a variety of LNB's upon 2 of their vessels in order to identify the Pro's and Con's of a range of LNB's. I hope it helps.
