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Radar Reflectors
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Maine Sail
Member III
Active is best
Active is best, Sea-Me, but pricey, then probably the Davis Echomaster hung in catch rain or double catch rain..
Active is best, Sea-Me, but pricey, then probably the Davis Echomaster hung in catch rain or double catch rain..
Chris A.
Member III
I have the Davis Echomaster, and here is an excerpt from Practical Sailor from 2000
The problem is that it is difficult to see what effect these devices are having on someone else's radar display!
Here is a link to another article (for purchase) on PS about the topic:
Radar reflectors
And for some info on the Davis products:
Davis Echomaster
The gold one is sort of cardboard- I have one of the metal ones.
As we have each year since 1995, PS editors selected the top 10 products tested during the past year. Looking back to that first year (was it really five years ago?!), 1995 saw us select the inexpensive Davis Echomaster radar reflector, which in the anechoic chamber at the Stanford Research Institute outperformed much more expensive reflectors.
The problem is that it is difficult to see what effect these devices are having on someone else's radar display!
Here is a link to another article (for purchase) on PS about the topic:
Radar reflectors
And for some info on the Davis products:
Davis Echomaster
The gold one is sort of cardboard- I have one of the metal ones.
Last edited:
Annapolis E-27
Member III
This is a good link that addresses a lot of radar reflector choices. http://www.ussailing.org/safety/Studies/radar_reflector_test.htm
treilley
Sustaining Partner
I also use a Davis Echomaster.
Here is some more info on reflectors:
http://sbo.sailboatowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109198
Here is some more info on reflectors:
http://sbo.sailboatowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109198
Rocinante33
Contributing Partner
The Echomaster is also what I use. There are two issues with it, though;
It is not a permanently mounted unit, and it won't work (no surprise here) when it is not hoisted up the mast. I often have to remind myself of this image I have of the bridge of the monster ship that is still a mile off, steaming at 25+ knots on a crossing course with us. The watch has his glazed eyes hypnotically fixed on the radar/AIS screen & never looks out at the small boat (us) in the path of the ship! Even on clear days, it is a good idea to hoist that thing. Ours goes to the second spreader. The higher the better, I think. It does clang around up there, so it is not practical to leave it up all the time.
It must be mounted in the catch rain position (as mentioned above) in order to reflect strongly. The mount for the one I have now is good for this. I had an older one on our first boat that did not have a way to mount it correctly.
It is not a permanently mounted unit, and it won't work (no surprise here) when it is not hoisted up the mast. I often have to remind myself of this image I have of the bridge of the monster ship that is still a mile off, steaming at 25+ knots on a crossing course with us. The watch has his glazed eyes hypnotically fixed on the radar/AIS screen & never looks out at the small boat (us) in the path of the ship! Even on clear days, it is a good idea to hoist that thing. Ours goes to the second spreader. The higher the better, I think. It does clang around up there, so it is not practical to leave it up all the time.
It must be mounted in the catch rain position (as mentioned above) in order to reflect strongly. The mount for the one I have now is good for this. I had an older one on our first boat that did not have a way to mount it correctly.
Frank Langer
1984 Ericson 30+, Nanaimo, BC
We have a Davis Echomaster on our 30 foot sailboat. During a very foggy trip where we had to get home we mounted the radar reflector at the first spreader, about half way up the mast. I heard a ferry fog horn, and radioed him on our VHF. His reply was that he had been monitoring us on his radar, and we discussed how we would avoid a collision.
It was our first test of this radar reflector, and was reassuring to know that it worked!
Frank
It was our first test of this radar reflector, and was reassuring to know that it worked!
Frank
I was going to re-open this thread, but in doing my homework I think I found my answer. Posting anyway in case this is useful to someone else later:
Summary as of 2025:
* Not much point doing anything but the cheap Davis octahedral.
* And even that is not great.
* Next steps are AIS transmit/receive, but... not everyone runs (or monitors) AIS, so this is only a partial solution.
* Which leaves getting your own radar. (Active radar detectors / reflectors do not clearly work with new chirped pulse radars, so... you need your own radar. Plus anyway the actice ones cost as much as radar these days.) It appears that in general, the only radar that will work for you is probably the same brand as your chartplotter, so thet sets the pricepoint.
Some various details and links (as of 2025):
The options: (good details here https://www.ussailing.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/radar-reflector-tests.pdf )
Octahedral. Davis and others make them. Cheap as dirt, and decent RCS (Radar Cross-Section) but 1) pain to store, 2) a pain to assemble (and in bad weather really hard), 3) sharp edges that chafe, and 4) known to blow off when needed most. Most of us probably already have one of these that we don't use as much as we should for the reasons just stated. PS: You really do need to mount them right; google "catch rain" radar reflector orientation.
"Fender" style -- the encapsulated plastic lozenges you see on people's masts. Echomaster and others make them. Seem to have decent RCS, but, I worry about lines getting tangled on them.
"Tube style" -- the tubes you see on people's shrouds. Plastimo and Mobri make them, among others. Supposedly have terrible RCS at all but about zero heel angle (see data in links below.) Advantages: small, easy to mount, unlikely to tangle / chafe stuff, disadvantge: may not have enough RCS to be of any utility at all.
"Tri-lens" -- supposedly very good; not clearly commercially available anymore. Looks even easier to tangle stuff on than the "fender" style. Unclear who makes them now. Per Westmarine, used by US Navy and Practical sailor says, “If you’re in the market for a passive radar reflector, we recommend the Tri-Lens.” (August 2001) But: "Rozendal Associates, Inc. (RAI) is the sole owner and manufacturer of the TriLens(TM) Large, Standard and Mini Radar Reflectors (U.S. Patent No. D462016), which are no loner sold through resellers or actively marketed to recreational users." And they are no longer available from WM etc.
Active: Advantages: small, huge RCS, set off alarms. Disadbatnage: price, require power (and won't work if power fails...), but worst: may not work with modern chirped-pule radar.
Links:
Extremely well-done and useful 2020 discussion by offshore sailors: https://forum.sfbaysss.org/threads/radar-reflectors-musings.2425/
Conclusion there is to just make your own slightly larger Davis-type octahedral and then use either your own radar or AIS transmit/receive as additional coverage. Very useful discussion on size efficacy (apparently scales like (size)^4 power!) and the fact that big ships use 'automatic radar plotting' and so won;t see you if your return is not very consistent (i.e., big.)
Note: despite very similar PDF names, these two documents are very different:
Description of differetn types, and discussion:
Tests of refector Radar Cross Section vs heel angle and reflector orientation:
Also 2005 Yachting Monthly:
https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/ins...20/filebank/reflector_performance_ym_june.pdf
Tubular: minor issue; see here: https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/tubular-radar-reflector-flutter.15099/
www.echomax.co.uk
Tri-lens:
www.rozendalassociates.com
www.practical-sailor.com
Active reflectors:
** Beware: it is unclear (to me) that any of these work that well with more modern radar systems that used chirped pulses (as opposed tot he older X- and S-band systems. I am unclear whether big ships are slowly moving to chirped systems, but I can't imagine why they wouldn;t over time. Small radar systems clearly have already shifted (just look at the websites for boat radars). Brans include(d):
Sea-me: may be defunct; no webiste come sup. Old manual: https://www.cactusnav.com/files/SEA ME.pdf
Echomaster: https://www.echomax.co.uk/active-faq
Summary as of 2025:
* Not much point doing anything but the cheap Davis octahedral.
* And even that is not great.
* Next steps are AIS transmit/receive, but... not everyone runs (or monitors) AIS, so this is only a partial solution.
* Which leaves getting your own radar. (Active radar detectors / reflectors do not clearly work with new chirped pulse radars, so... you need your own radar. Plus anyway the actice ones cost as much as radar these days.) It appears that in general, the only radar that will work for you is probably the same brand as your chartplotter, so thet sets the pricepoint.
Some various details and links (as of 2025):
The options: (good details here https://www.ussailing.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/radar-reflector-tests.pdf )
Octahedral. Davis and others make them. Cheap as dirt, and decent RCS (Radar Cross-Section) but 1) pain to store, 2) a pain to assemble (and in bad weather really hard), 3) sharp edges that chafe, and 4) known to blow off when needed most. Most of us probably already have one of these that we don't use as much as we should for the reasons just stated. PS: You really do need to mount them right; google "catch rain" radar reflector orientation.
"Fender" style -- the encapsulated plastic lozenges you see on people's masts. Echomaster and others make them. Seem to have decent RCS, but, I worry about lines getting tangled on them.
"Tube style" -- the tubes you see on people's shrouds. Plastimo and Mobri make them, among others. Supposedly have terrible RCS at all but about zero heel angle (see data in links below.) Advantages: small, easy to mount, unlikely to tangle / chafe stuff, disadvantge: may not have enough RCS to be of any utility at all.
"Tri-lens" -- supposedly very good; not clearly commercially available anymore. Looks even easier to tangle stuff on than the "fender" style. Unclear who makes them now. Per Westmarine, used by US Navy and Practical sailor says, “If you’re in the market for a passive radar reflector, we recommend the Tri-Lens.” (August 2001) But: "Rozendal Associates, Inc. (RAI) is the sole owner and manufacturer of the TriLens(TM) Large, Standard and Mini Radar Reflectors (U.S. Patent No. D462016), which are no loner sold through resellers or actively marketed to recreational users." And they are no longer available from WM etc.
Active: Advantages: small, huge RCS, set off alarms. Disadbatnage: price, require power (and won't work if power fails...), but worst: may not work with modern chirped-pule radar.
Links:
Extremely well-done and useful 2020 discussion by offshore sailors: https://forum.sfbaysss.org/threads/radar-reflectors-musings.2425/
Conclusion there is to just make your own slightly larger Davis-type octahedral and then use either your own radar or AIS transmit/receive as additional coverage. Very useful discussion on size efficacy (apparently scales like (size)^4 power!) and the fact that big ships use 'automatic radar plotting' and so won;t see you if your return is not very consistent (i.e., big.)
Note: despite very similar PDF names, these two documents are very different:
Description of differetn types, and discussion:
Tests of refector Radar Cross Section vs heel angle and reflector orientation:
Also 2005 Yachting Monthly:
https://keyassets.timeincuk.net/ins...20/filebank/reflector_performance_ym_june.pdf
Tubular: minor issue; see here: https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/threads/tubular-radar-reflector-flutter.15099/
Echomax | radar reflectors with Med Certification Ships Wheel Mark and UK Ensign Mark The only one to be seen with
Echomax are a UK based family run business Manufacturing certified Ships Wheel Marked Radar Reflectors since 1998. We also Manufacture Target Enhancers, Solar Stills and Smoke Hoods.
www.echomax.co.uk
Tri-lens:
TriLenses — Rozendal Associates, Inc.
www.rozendalassociates.com
Tri-Lens Radar Reflector - Practical Sailor
Since 1974, Practical Sailor’s independent testing has taken the guesswork out of boat and gear buying.
www.practical-sailor.com
Active reflectors:
** Beware: it is unclear (to me) that any of these work that well with more modern radar systems that used chirped pulses (as opposed tot he older X- and S-band systems. I am unclear whether big ships are slowly moving to chirped systems, but I can't imagine why they wouldn;t over time. Small radar systems clearly have already shifted (just look at the websites for boat radars). Brans include(d):
Sea-me: may be defunct; no webiste come sup. Old manual: https://www.cactusnav.com/files/SEA ME.pdf
Echomaster: https://www.echomax.co.uk/active-faq
Prairie Schooner
Jeff & Donna, E35-3 purchased 7/21
Alan Gomes
Sustaining Partner
Excellent summary. Thanks.