Furuno 1833C General procedure for detecting Sart response, General remarks on receiving Sart

2. RADAR OPERATION

General procedure for detecting SART response

1.Use the range scale of 6 or 12 nm as the spacing between the SART responses is about 0.6 nm (1125 m) to distinguish the SART.

2.Turn off the automatic clutter suppression (if applicable).

3.Turn off the Interference Rejector.

General remarks on receiving SART

SART range errors

When responses from only the 12 low frequency sweeps are visible (when the SART is at a range greater than about 1 nm), the position at which the first dot is displayed may be as much as 0.64 nm beyond the true position of the SART. When the range closes so that the fast sweep responses are seen also, the first of these will be no more than 150 meters beyond the true position.

Radar bandwidth

This is normally matched to the radar pulselength and is usually switched with the range scale and the associated pulselength. Narrow bandwidths of 3-5 MHz are used with long pulses on long range and wide bandwidths of 10-25 MHz with short pulses on short ranges.

Any radar bandwidth of less than 5 MHz will attenuate the SART signal slightly, so it is preferable to use a medium bandwidth to ensure optimum detection of the SART.

Radar sidelobes

As the SART is approached, sidelobes from the radar antenna may show the SART responses as a series of arcs or concentric rings. These can be removed by the use of the [A/C SEA] control although it may be operationally useful to observe the sidelobes as they may be easier to detect in clutter conditions and also they will confirm that the SART is near to the ship.

Gain

For maximum range SART detection the normal gain setting for long range detection should be used, that is, with background noise speckle visible.

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