Navico BR24 Wins Innovation Award

Navico said its revolutionary BR24 Broadband Radar has won the 2009 EDN Innovation Award for “Best Application of RF Design”.

Celebrating Australian and New Zealand innovation, Navico said 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, said Navico, it highlights the company’s groundbreaking achievement in overcoming significant challenges in all aspects of the system’s design.

Five years in development, Navico said its 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 is said to represent the next generation of radar safety, affordability and ease of use.

Navico said the BR24 is the ultimate vessel navigation and collision avoidance accessory, providing boaters with a host of important performance and safety benefits. These include 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 3nm, Navico said the BR24 eliminates close-in vessel blind spot (main bang) resulting in crystal-clear, highly-detailed intuitive views of surroundings to a 1/32nm range scale. Navico also said the BR24 is incredibly safe, and that the new radome transmits at 1/20,000th the power of traditional radar – less than 1/10th the energy of a mobile phone. According to Navico, the system emits no harmful radiation outside the dome, allowing for its 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 from standby, which eliminates time-wasting warm-up; and incredibly low power consumption (30 to 50 per cent more efficient) compared to traditional pulse radomes.

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

The compact 18in 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.

For more information visit www.navico.com