# Deck House Mount Radar Scanner ! Safe?



## mikeysoutheast (Sep 7, 2008)

Dear All,

I seen many power boats were mounted with radar scanner on deck house. Will that be a health issues?

Regards,


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## bottleinamessage (Aug 6, 2007)

A few years ago I asked Raymarine the same question. They replied that the new scanners could be used as a "pillow" to rest your head on with no medical worries.


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## gc1111 (May 13, 2004)

My understanding is that the danger from radar is the heating it can cause (think microwave ovens). The most sensitive part of the body is the eyes.

This said, the average power (and thus heating capacity) that a radar antenna transmits is pretty small. But it is concentrated in the horizontal plane of the antenna. I would not hesitate to balance an antenna on my head, or use it as a pillow. But I would not be comfortable with it at eye level.


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## CVAT (Apr 29, 2012)

I would not call a 4kW RADAR not dangerous, it will still damage any soft tissue of the body it passes through.


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## bfloyd4445 (Sep 29, 2013)

CVAT said:


> I would not call a 4kW RADAR not dangerous, it will still damage any soft tissue of the body it passes through.


we need some real numbers here. I will see if i can find them and post. But, keep in mind that the power dissipates at the square of the distance away from the emitter and is rapidly absorbed by solid materials like deck roof etc. My guess is you would not want to be in line with and close to the antenna when its operating


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## CVAT (Apr 29, 2012)

bfloyd4445 said:


> we need some real numbers here. I will see if i can find them and post. But, keep in mind that the power dissipates at the square of the distance away from the emitter and is rapidly absorbed by solid materials like deck roof etc. My guess is you would not want to be in line with and close to the antenna when its operating


1. 4kW, was an actual number 4000 watts which is the rated power of both the Garmin GMR 18xHD High Definition RADAR and the Raymarine RD418D to list just two for RADARS rated at a 36 NM range and where the ones I used to come up with the 4kW number, sorry for not providing more data.

2. The eyes are only one of many soft tissues in the body in fact the body is mostly soft tissue, RF energy exposure is proven to cause temporary sterility in males; it kills sperm. In addition it can interfere with the operation of a pacemaker.

3. Deck roof protection? a Metal roof would reflect the energy and provide the best protections, a fibre glass roof would pass a majority of it, it is why they use fiber glass for whip antennas and RADAR radomes, wood would adsorb some but pass a great deal too.

4. Long term effects of repeated exposure to non-ionizing (i.e. electromagnetic, or RF) radiation is unknown. The Advice from Raymarine, was this from an information booth at a boat show or the telephone operator on the tech support, or was it from the guys that actually built designed and repair it? The first too are nothing more than SALESMEN and Script readers, the last too should know better, personally I respect my nutts to much to do such a thing, but hey if you want to be temporarily sterile, go for it, but for me I'll keep it as high as possible.

5. That being said, and having worked on High power RF devices for most of my adult life, I am 50, I personally would want the RADAR as high as possible, one increases line of sight there by increasing the ability of the RADAR to pick up targets, two increases the distance from me of the transmitting antenna and increasing the safety factor for me, by decreasing the amount of energy I could potentially be exposed to. Also note that everyone in our shop had to be tested annually, or any time there was an accidental release, this annual exam was a basic physical including eyesight and for the males a fertility test, as I stated earlier it can cause sterility. Females where assigned other duties outside the shop if they where pregnant, to protect them and the fetus. An interesting side note on the sterility issue, different sperm die at different exposure levels, the first to go are the Y chromosome male sperm the X sperm require a higher exposure to die off, if a guy in the shop said his wife or girlfriend was pregnant we would get a pink gift for him and his significant other, we where right more times than not, while I do not have specific numbers I would be willing to say at least 90% of the time. Of personal note, while I was in the shop we had my daughter, my son was conceived and born later when I was not in the shop but teaching the system, as we did not operate it that often in the school, only during specific lab days, at most 5 weeks out of the year, and not every day for for 8 to 12 hours, in fact the majority of people assigned to the shop who had children had their son around 6 months after they left the shop and stopped the routine exposure.

6. I agree with your statement "would not want to be in line with and close to the antenna when operating."

Thomas


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## Matt (Aug 11, 2015)

the radar transmits (generally) in a 10 degree doward horizontal angle. so if anyone is in that line of fire they are getting zapped. any radar manual will say not to transmit at dock for this reason.


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## bfloyd4445 (Sep 29, 2013)

Matt said:


> the radar transmits (generally) in a 10 degree doward horizontal angle. so if anyone is in that line of fire they are getting zapped. any radar manual will say not to transmit at dock for this reason.


why not? everyone in the marina is being blasted with hundreds of different microwaves and electromagnetic radiation from 300GHZ to 3HZ of which radar is a part of constantly anyway. If you go off shore then you may escape most of the hazard but we mostly sit at the dock reading stuff like this so are seriously exposed each second


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## Matt (Aug 11, 2015)

bfloyd4445 said:


> why not? everyone in the marina is being blasted with hundreds of different microwaves and electromagnetic radiation from 300GHZ to 3HZ of which radar is a part of constantly anyway. If you go off shore then you may escape most of the hazard but we mostly sit at the dock reading stuff like this so are seriously exposed each second


not sure, thats just what i remember from the install manual of my radar, (not that i need to worry mine is 15ft up the mast on a gimbaled mount so id have to be at about 60 degrees before it hits me) i think i also get a little warning about being close to other boats that i have to acknowledge every time i turn the radar on


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## Capt Len (Oct 9, 2011)

Nonsense, even smoking was suposed to be harmless and manly. But when fishboats are in a tight pack and fighting for scales they turn off the radar to prevent zapping of each others equipment ,and you never see scanners installed at the same level .


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