Navico Broadband Radar wins innovation award

Navico’s revolutionary BR24 Broadband Radar has won the 2009 EDN Innovation Award for ‘Best Application of RF Design’.

Celebrating Australian and New Zealand innovation, the prestigious award acknowledges the tireless effort of Navico’s engineering department in its pursuit to develop the world’s most technologically-advanced marine electronics. In particular, it highlights Navico’s groundbreaking achievement in overcoming significant challenges in all aspects of the system’s design.

Five years in development, Navico’s BR24 Broadband Radar is the greatest breakthrough in radar technology since 1940. As the world’s first recreational marine Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radome, the BR24 represents the next generation of radar safety, affordability and ease of use.

The ultimate vessel navigation and collision avoidance accessory, the BR24 delivers boaters a host of important performance and safety benefits, including superior target definition and target separation in close quarters, such as when navigating unfamiliar areas at night or when passing through busy commercial shipping zones.

Boasting range resolution to less than 3m, the BR24 eliminates close-in vessel blind spot (main bang) resulting in crystal-clear, highly-detailed intuitive views of surroundings to a 1/32 nautical mile range scale. Incredibly safe, the new radome transmits at 1/20,000 the power of traditional radar – less than 1/10th the energy of a mobile phone! – and emits no harmful radiation outside the dome, allowing for flexible installation on a range of vessels.

Other innovative features of the BR24 include advanced clutter rejection which virtually eliminates tuning; rapid cold start and InstantOn^TM from standby which eliminates time-wasting warm-up; and an incredibly low power consumption (30-50 per cent more efficient) when compared with traditional pulse radomes.

Compatible with Lowrance HDS, Northstar and Simrad multifunction displays, Navico’s BR24 provides an effective 24nm range and supports chart overlay, display networking and more.

The compact 18″ radome measures 280mm(h) x 488mm diameter, weighs 7.4kg, and can be quickly installed with an easy-to-route 13.5mm diameter scanner cable. Drawing 17W during operation (1.6W standby) the radome has an operating temperature range of -25°C to +55°C.

Further information:

Navico Australia – (02) 9936 1000 or visit: www.navico.com