Page 36: of Marine News Magazine (April 2016)

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TECHNOLOGY: NAVIGATION

Taking the Furuno 15X8 series Radar

Out for a Spin

Furuno’s newest entry has found a welcome place on inland waters.

By Kathy A. Smith

Images above courtesy: SDS Lumber Company uruno’s newest radar is now on the market. The ? rst ed clarity with a single dedicated key – the only workboat workboat installation of the company’s FAR-15X8 radar Furuno has developed with this feature. series was completed in late February and early Furuno’s Bill Haynes, Deep Sea Product Manager, ex-

F

March. Following installation, test runs were carried out plains, “We wanted to reduce the amount of time the op- on the Bruce M, a 65-foot, 1900 Hp inland pushboat op- erator has to play around with the radar to get a good pic- erated by SDS Lumber based out of Bingen, Washington. ture. That’s one of the reasons for developing ACE. When

The vessel works the Columbia Snake River system, main- you turn ACE on, the processor automatically looks for ly pushing either construction or wood chip barges. The patterns of interference and eliminates them while main- man at the helm when the initial test took place in Hood taining excellent target and land mass clarity.”

River, Oregon waters was Captain Gary Collins, SDS’ Ma- SDS’ Captain Jim Taylor took the Bruce M on a run from rine Superintendent. Longview to Astoria in early March, pushing an empty barge on the passage down, returning to Astoria with a barge full of wood chips. The trip began in the late afternoon and last-

A Test Spin of New Features

SDS Lumber is not new to the Furuno line of products. ed 15 hours. Capt. Taylor found the ACE function enabled

The company was looking to upgrade its radar equipment the crew to easily see targets despite intermittent heavy rain, choppy seas and squalls. “This was my ? rst chance to adjust on Bruce M, and purchased the FAR-15X8. “We immedi- ately noticed the picture on it is a lot clearer,” says Capt. everything and tune it up,” he says. “I turned ACE on and off to see how it functioned. It works really well.”

Collins. That’s due to a new feature called ACE (Automat-

Another new feature of the FAR-15X8 series is the Tar- ic Clutter Elimination), an automatic rain and sea clutter get Analyzer function, which not only tracks targets but suppression tool that gives what Furuno calls unprecedent-

April 2016

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