New Radar Technology Monday 17 March 2003 Recently there have been several pieces in the sailing press about so-called new radar technology. For example an article in the Spring 2003 issue of the RYA Magazine (Changes in Radar Technolgy page 15) implied that there is doubt as to whether safety devices such as RTEs, SARTs and RACONs will work with the "new" radars. There is a lot of confusion about new radar but the only thing which is set in concrete is that radars sold after 1st Jan 2003 must have filters fitted to limit out of band emissions. These have no effect on the ability of the radar to operate in-band and so will have no effect on RTEs etc. For further information it is worth reading Basil D'Oliveira's contribution in the April 2003 Issue of Sailing Today. A couple of extracts may however suffice: a. "All current marine radars, including those which meet the ITU spurious emission limits demanded from 1st Jan 2003, are compatible with RACONs, SARTs and RTEs." b. "RTEs are active radar reflectors, sending back and amplified version of radar signals received and thereby improving the consistency of the response. They should work with any technology." In short RTEs and radars are and will continue to be compatible.