Pankhurst says the benefit over these radars is that the Chirp model won’t suffer any interference from magnetron radar echoes. Quantum also benefits from safe emissions and minimal warm-up time like broadband radome types. The cable through the mast is just 7mm in diameter. Integrated wi-fi allows Raymarine’s Quantum to network directly to multifunction displays, and simplifies installation by eliminating the need for additional radar cabling. “It has much better close-range resolution, but without the worry of big bang echoes,” says Raymarine’s head of corporate marketing, Fiona Pankhurst. The Quantum can reveal echoes from just 18ft up to 24nm away.

The promised range at both ends of the scale is another benefit of this technology. The Quantum radome weighs 5.6kg.Īlthough there is still a spinning part inside the radome – the circuit board itself revolves – it is the information produced to send out the radar pulse that has changed. What’s in the box?Īt the launch Raymarine revealed the guts inside: a new solid-state circuit board compared with the metallic innards of a magnetron radar, emphasising the weight saving. It is also a market leader in terms of power consumption and ease of installation.

The 18in Quantum weighs around 50 per cent less than traditional magnetron radars. Raymarine’s development is arguably of more interest to sailors for its weight-saving though.

This produces sharper, more defined images by sending out variable frequencies simultaneously. The same benefits are applied to marine radar with this, the industry’s first compact recreational radome with Chirp pulse compression technology. Chirp technology is used increasingly by marine manufacturers in echo sounders to increase target resolution when fishfinding. Raymarine claims its new Quantum Chirp radome is the lightest and most efficient radar in its class.

Raymarine radar not spinning