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MGN 349 is a notice to all Owners, Operators, Masters and Skippers of small vessels under 150 tons including Pleasure craft. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has issued a Marine Guidance Note on the carriage and use of Radar Reflectors on small vessels. This is defined as a Stated Performance Level (SPL), which is required to be maintained at up to 10 or 20 degrees (two classes recognising the stability differences of power and sailing vessels) either side of the vertical, and limits weight to 5kg and volume to 0.05 m3. This IMO resolution recognises that consistency of response is more effective in raising the probability of radar detection than single high peaks.
#Is reflector 2 safe iso#
The current ISO standards resulted from the IMO requirement set out in resolution MSC 164(78). Given that the reflection from even the best recreational reflector is also affected by positioning, orientation, and angle of heel, you may be starting to get the picture that you might not always appear on the picture! The physics of radar reflection is complicated and it is notoriously difficult to conduct trials under real conditions at sea where conditions are less than perfect and reproduce test lab results. Laboratory test results on passive units have shown that average RCS values are often much lower than claimed and many reflectors have large nulls (areas where there are virtually no radar returns at all). All seemingly conclude that whatever their manufacturers might claim, some designs are little better than no reflector at all and even the most popular do not always come up to expectations, this is hardly surprising when the IMO requirement is fully understood. Over the past few years there have been several trials carried out by the boating press, on how effectively radar reflectors for recreational boats meet these requirements. an RCS of at least 0.625m over an azimuth angle of at least 240° for angles of heal up to +/-15.an RCS of at least 2.5m over an azimuth angle of at least 240° when the reflector is vertical (i.e.a peak Radar Cross Section (RCS) of at least 10m.The current ISO test standards in very basic terms require that a radar reflector has: Generally speaking, the higher a reflector is mounted, the better, although vessel operators should take account of the possible effects of the mass of the reflector on the stability of the vessel. With this in mind, the critical factors when selecting and fitting a radar reflector remain to ensure a device with the largest possible radar cross section is carried and that it is mounted in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. They consider it to be feasible for vessels of 15m and over to fit radar reflectors that comply with the standard, but advise that vessels of under 15m in length should fit a radar reflector with the greatest echoing area practicable. Passive radar reflectors built to the current standard (few, if any, are available) are often too large to be practically fitted to smaller vessels and it is with this in mind that the MCA have issued their guidance. The ISO test standards, with which radar reflectors must comply, are ISO 8729-2:2009 (Active) and ISO 8729-1:2010 (Passive). Some passive radar reflectors also respond to both bands but with reduced performance on S Band. There are now radar target enhancers (RTE) available for recreational use that operate satisfactorily in both bands. X band radars are heavily affected by sea or rain clutter, whereas S band radar assures large target detection in adverse weather. Marine radars operate in two bands, the X band (9410 MHz ± 30 MHz) and the S band (3050 MHz ± 30 MHz). SOLAS V 19.2.1.7 requires vessels if less than 150 gross tonnage and if practicable, a radar reflector or other means, to enable detection by ships navigating by radar at both 9 and 3 GHz.Įssentially this means that if it is possible to use a radar reflector on your boat you should do so, but you should also be aware of the limitations of some of the radar reflectors currently available to you. In fact this is a requirement under the SOLAS V regulations:
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To maximise their visibility to ships navigating using radar as a primary means of identifying potential hazards, including collision situations, boats can be fitted with a radar reflector.