JRC 1500 Radar

[David VanDenburgh]

Anyone have any experience with the JRC 1500 radar system?

I know it is a low-power bottom-end system so I'm not expecting great things, but I would like to hear from any users who have personal experience. Reliability? Viewability? Usability?

I would very much appreciate any feedback. Thanks in advance.

[Nacra2]

This doesn't necessarily answer any of your questions but for whatever it's worth components inside my Raytheon unit are identified with JRC stickers. Sort of makes me wonder

[David VanDenburgh]

... isn't THAT interesting! Thanks.

[Tom Keevil]

My understanding is that JRC did in fact make the guts of the Raytheon units, but then went off as a separate company.

We installed a JRC 1500 last year. The scanner is on a Questus backstary mount, and the display unit is on a swivelling arm just inside the companionway.

As you would expect, the performance and display is not up to the standards of the higher priced units, but it serves our purposes well. If it's a foggy day, we stay at the dock, but we were concerned about getting caught out in the fog, and then heading back on a GPS heading to the same buoy that all of the other boats in the area were headed for as well. Collision avoidance was primary. A secondary use, that we have not yet experienced is using it on overnight ocean passages to monitor ship and fishing traffic.

We chose the lower backstay mount for a variety of reasons, but one of them was to have the scanner lower with the resulting better close-in coverage. We were more interested in things close up than things 16 miles away (though we recognize the dangers of fast moving ships).

We don't have much experience with other brands of radar, so comparisons are not worth much. I have looked at the displays of other high end systems in the harbor, and the screens are larger, the targets are a bit sharper, but they both seem to show the same objects.

We did the installation ourselves, and it was pretty straightforward. You need to disconnect some wires inside the scanner. I took a couple of digital photos to insure that I would get it back together properly. The only defect was the presence of some water vapor in the display unit, which condensed on the inside of the screen when it was sitting in full sunlight. JRC said that was common, and provided a few silica gel packs to put inside.

It takes quite a bit of practice in clear weather to use the radar well. You need to fool around with it to get the best display as conditions and surroundings change. You think that all of the buoys are going to light up, and they do, but so do the isolated pilings and the pelicans, so it's not always obvious what you are looking at. If you just want to steer along in the middle of the bay you can just glance at it, but if you really want to know if that target is a moving vessel headed in your direction it takes some concentration. It really is best to have one person on the radar while another handles the boat. The small display is best seen if you're relatively close to it. With our setup, seeing details from the helm is difficult.

The unit is pretty easy to use. If I could make one change it would be to add a few more buttons. Cycling through the software menu items (range, sea clutter, rain clutter, gain, tuning) is a slight nuisance. The other unexpected nuisance is the noise made by the scanner when it is turning. It's not really loud, but on a quiet sailboat, it is noticable. It wouldn't be an isssue if the scanner was up on the mast, but it is right over our heads. Another issue, common to all instruments, is that it clashes aesthetically with the teak interior. Jean has a tendency to hang dish towels on it to improve its appearance.

We do not have a chart plotter, and are happy plotting GPS coordinates on a paper chart, but this does leave the aforementioned ambiguity of exactly what a given target represents. We are just about to install a data connection between the radar and the GPS which will help us quickly identify a given buoy that has been previously marked as a waypoint.

In summary, I think the unit is a good value for someone wanting it for intermittent use in certain circumstances. If I were going to be motoring along under autopilot at high speeds, I would probably want a larger unit with a few more bells and whistles.

[David VanDenburgh]

... it's responses like this that make the board so valuable.

[gsd46]

We purchased a JRC 1500 radar this spring for our CD 25. Mobile Bay is a busy place in terms of large ships as well as pleasure craft and we wanted some sort of radar. Since we have not actually had our boat in the water yet, and have not tried the radar unit out, it is good to note from the comments that it will do what we hoped it will.

[David VanDenburgh]

For anyone contemplating the purchase of a JRC 1500, be aware that the Mk I came with 10 meters of cable and the Mk II is supposed to come with 15 meters of cable, but one retailer told me that it is possible to buy a Mk II set with 10 meters of cable, in which case the price should be about $30 less.

I have been told that the Mk II has a brighter upgraded screen from the Mk I, but I'm not convinced that is so. So far as I can tell, the cable length may be the only difference.

If anyone knows of any other difference between the Mk I and the Mk II, I would like to hear from you.

Caveat emptor indeed!

[dwdisbennett]

JRC did in fact make all the radars for Raytheon. When Raymarine was spun off as a seperate company JRC lost the contract and Raymarine did all their own work. As far as the quality of the unit, I think they work fine. They don't have the bells and whistles of Raymarine or Furuno, but they do what they are intended to do...tell you whats floating between you and where you wnat to be. THe definition is where you loose in the whole scheme of things. Two small bouys floating close together on a small inlet will show as one and fade in and out until you get relatively close. They have decent product support, and it's easy to talk to a real live person there. Raymarine pushes yo very hard to use their on line support by having long waits to talk to a customer service rep. 20 minutes is the norm.

I think you would do very well with the JRC. I would go with the longer cable. I have installed very few radars on sailboats where 10 meters of cable is enough.

Good luck
Dave