I’ll admit I’ve been curious about this for years. The various self-leveling radar mounts I’ve come across appear to incorporate some combination of complex, fragile, heavy, or expensive. On the other hand, how can radar possibly work well at 20-degree heel?
I’ll admit…I don’t know what the answer is here. So I’ll be following this discussion over at Panbo closely…
Should sailboat radars be leveled, and if so how?
This entry is inspired by Edson’s Miami introduction of a Manual Radar Leveling Kit that looks neat to me. I’ve seen pole mounts like this before–either custom fabricated or made by less familiar companies like Garhauer–and they struck me as a simple and economical way to deal with the issue of decreased radar performance due to boat heel. But before discussing the merits of manual (or electric) leveling mechanisms versus the many self-leveling mounts, I probably ought to address the fact that some sailors reject the whole notion of radar leveling as hokum!…
For instance, I found this emphatic statement on cruisersforum.com: "I NOTICED NO DISCERNIBLE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE QUESTUS {self-leveling} PERFORMANCE AND THE CONVENTIONAL POLE MOUNT!!!"
