Basic operation
This exercise can be used to try to practice the radar basic operation. If you need help on radar controls, click on its window and press F1.
(1) Switch the set on. Radars usually have a special "Power" button to perform this operation. Some need just a single press on the button, but many require press and hold for a few seconds. Once the set is switched on, magnetron starts warming, what in practice takes more than a minute. This time is made intentionally much less in the radar simulators.
(2) Switch the set off. Most radar require "press and hold" the power button with countdown displayed on the screen.
(3) Transmit on/off. There is a special softkey or menu to start transmitting. Once transmit has been started, the PPI shows the radar image. When transmitting, the radar consumes energy, so all radars have STAND-BY state and some have watchman feature - periodic transmissions to check if a new target appeared near the ship.
(4) Brilliance. Change brightness of the picture. Excessive brightness decreases lifetime of the display.
(5) Gain. This control changes the power of the emitted signal. When too high, the radar image is bright and heavily speckled. When too low, small targets are not visible. In pracise, it is advised to set gain level to retain some speckles on the screen and not to remove them completely.
(6) Range. Radar range usually changes from 0.125 to 16-24 NM. A special button or switch is used to increase/decrease the range. Each range has its own set on concentric rings displayed on the screen, used to roughtly estimate distances to targets and coast line. Rings can be switched on and off.
(7) Tuning. Controls receiver sensitivity that changes when magnetron operates. Many radars have automatic tunung adjustment, and others have automatic and manual control of tuning.
Try to use all these controls.
This exercise shows that we are in the middle of the channel, but, if we want to move along the channel, the heading is wrong : it must be some 140 deg instead of current 160.

Interpreting radar picture
(1) Set range to 3NM
(2) Look at the picture : the brightest echoes are produced by shore lines which are closest to the ship and perpendicular to beam direction (incidence angle close to the right angle); look at the shadow zone to the right : the river entrance is unseen.

Head-up and north-up display modes
Typically, the ship is at the centre of radar image, and a bright line (SHL - ship heading line) shows direction of ship's heading. On most radars, this line can be hidden temporarily, usually for a short period of time. Normally, this line is always shown, because it is always important to see the current ship heading.
Closely connected to this, there are two typical ways for display of radar picture :
(1) head-up, when the heading line always points upwards, and you see all the radar objects relatively to the ship
(2) north-up, the radar picture looks like a chart with north direction upwards and the heading line moving around like a clock hand.
Please note that the radar "must know" the heading value to correctly display its heading scale around the screen and display its picture in north-up mode, so a radar must be always connected to a compass.
Some radar have only head-up mode avalable, like this gray-scale in the simulator; the other green-screen has both, cotrolled by a softkey.

Horizontal beam width
This exercise is used to look at the effect of horizontal beam width.
For most radars the horizontal beam width is between 2 and 6 degrees. The larger the scanner the smaller the beam width. A large horizontal beam width is a disadvantage, as it makes any contact blurred in peripheral direction.
Non-zero horizontal beam width makes it hard to discriminate between close targets.
Run the exercise. The radar image shows a single echo ahead, actually it is two targets. Start moving the ship. Try to change range. They seem a single target until the ship gets close enough to them.

Horizontal beam width
For most radars the horizontal beam width is between 2 and 6 degrees. The larger the scanner the smaller the beam width. A large horizontal beam width is a disadvantage, as it makes any contact blurred in peripheral direction. As a result, small targets look large and narrow entrances to harbours are not visible at all and they do not show up until you get close to them.
This sample illustrates an entrance into a narrow harbour. Radar beam width is set to 6 degrees (Equipment/Select radar/Properties used). Start moving the ship. The entrance will appear only when the ship is close to it.

Rain clutter
Rain clutter is produced by clouds. There are two types of controls to suppress such types of spurious echoes :
- near the ship (rain clutter control)
- remote rain clutter (FTC, short for Fast Time Constant)
Like the sea clutter control, it should be used with care not to hide important contacts.
Try to use rain suppression.

Sea clutter
This exercise is used to
(1) look as sea clutter appears on the radar screen
(2) suppress it with sea clutter control
Echoes from waves produce a star-burst pattern at the centre of display. It is less pronounced at the windward side of display, due to the generated shape of waves. The radius of wave clutter is up to 2-3 miles from the centre. Weak echoes from targets may be hidden by the clutter, so all radars have a control to suppress it.
On increasing its value, echoes from waves first are cleared from the centre and targets hidden by the wave echoes appear. The excessive value of this control hides weak targets and makes the coastline broken up into pieces.
Try to increase sea suppress sea clutter around the ship and get clear echo from the approaching target.

Radar interference Radars of other ships may produce radar interference - a pattern of arcs on the PPI. Most radars have a special control to suppress the interference. Use this control to suppress the interference produced by the approaching ship. This exercise was constructed without visuals. Use "Equipment" menu of exercise manager to add or remove visuals (they maybe slow) or any other equipment to/from an exercise.

Measuring ranges
Typically, there are three ways to measure ranges from the ship :
(1) using range rings. Range rings can be hidden and shown, on some radars with a softkey or a special button, on others from a setup. The value measured this way is approximate.
(2) with a moveable cursor. Now radars have a cursor movable with a trackball or trackpad with a window displaying the range from the ship to the current cursor location.
(3) special VRM control, which looks like a ring of variable radius. Radars for small boats have one or two VRM controls.
Typical applications of VRM.
(1) measuring range to a target. Set range to 3NM to see the approaching ship. Measure range to it with the methods ways described above.
(2) to move parallel to the shoreline, you set the VRM to the required distance off, and steer the ship to keep the shoreline just touching the VRM circle. Start ship moving and try this. Decrease the range to make reading more accurate.

Collision avoidance with EBL
Electronic bearing line provides the most well-known way of collision avoidance : if the ship is on steady course and bearing to a target does not change, there is a certain possibility of collision.
(1) start the exercise
(2) set throttle to maximum
(3) set radar range to 4NM and you will see two targets
(4) set EBL to targets to estimate the risk of collision with them
If the target slides along the EBL line to the centre, it is a a dangerous one. Which one of the two is dangerous?

Estimating target headings by EBL and wakes
Bearings together with wakes are used with the purpose to estimate headings of approaching ships.
Predict which ship lights are visible. Compare it with visuals.

Position fixing by three points
Position can be fixed by any traditional method, once we can measure bearing and ranges. However, measuring bearing is not a radar strong point, so using range measurements is more accurate.
(1) Set range to 12NM
(2) Select two or three landmarks, they must be easily identified on the radar screen and on the chart and must be well spaced from each other
(3) Make position fixes using bearing and range measurements

Collision avoidance with wakes
Another name for the wakes is trails. This is afterglow left on the screen by targets.
The length of wakes is usually set in minutes. Looking at the screen, it is easy to estimate relative speed and heading of any target.
Projecting the heading line of any vessel, you can roughly get the CPAs, what is most important.
(1) start the exercise
(2) set throttle to maximum
(3) set radar range to 4NM and you will see two targets
(4) set wake lengths to 3 minutes
Estimate CPAs of the targets. Which one of the two is dangerous?

Collision avoidance with MARPA
Some (not all) radars for small boats have MARPA - Mini Automatic Radar Plotting Aid used to predict CPA (Closest Point of Approach) and TCPA (Time of CPA) for targets on radar screen. The typical succession of operation is :
(1) place cursor over a target
(2) start MARPA/acquire target
(3) acquired targets are displayed as safe, marked by circles and dangerous, marked as triangles. If MARPA finds a target dangerous, alarm is issued.
(4) a window for each acquired target can be displayed, showing its CPA and TCPA values
The exercise :
(1) start the exercise
(2) set throttle to maximum
(3) set radar range to 4NM and you will see two targets
(4) acquire the targets with MARPA to estimate the risk of collision with them

Guard zones
Guard zones are used to issue alarms when a new radar-identified object enters or exits a specified zone around the ship.
(1) Set radar range to 2 NM
(2) Set a guard zone of approximately 1.5 NM in radius to cover area in the heading direction
(3) Start moving ahead
(4) Wait until alarm signal

Racon
Racon is a combination of words RAdar and beaCON.
This is an electronic device wich is capable to emit on radar frequencies when triggered by a radar. It responds on the same frequency forming a line of dots and dashes radiating from the centre and making up a Morze character.
Racons are used mostly to mark hazards. Most racons emit the signal only a part of time, e.g. for 20 seconds, and other 20 seconds do not, what makes 50% duty cycle.
In this exercise, increase the range to 3-6 NM to see the racon which forms an echo in the form of Morze letter "D" (Danger).
In reality, there is no racon at this location.

SART (Search And Rescue Transponder)
This floating object is used to locate a survival craft or distressed vessel by creating a series of dots or arcs on a rescuing ship's radar display. It only responds to X-band radars. 12 dots transform into arcs on approaching to a SART. The dots are equally spaced along the radius of 0.64 NM.
You are on rescue ship. Try to approach SART and locate it floating on the water surface (it looks like a red cylinder 1m height).

Entry in a harbour
Try to enter the harbour using buoys and radar. Clear radar picture : adjust gain, get rid of radar interference marks and wave spurious echoes.
Avoid collisions with ships.
All motor boats follow the fairway marked by lateral buoys, some sailing boats move by buoy-hopping.

Entry in a harbour at night
Try to enter the harbour using buoys and radar.
Suppress sea clutter on radar screen.
Use radar and ship lights to identify approaching ships. Avoid collisions with them.

Entry in a harbour in fog
Try to enter the harbour using buoys and radar. Use radar to identify approaching ships. Avoid collisions with them.
All motor boats follow the fairway marked by lateral buoys, some sailing boats move by buoy-hopping.

A pilotage task : enter Solent from the west
Enter the Solent from the west. Use lighthouse and buoy lights with radar. Use left/right keyboard keys to look around the ship.

A pilotage task : enter Solent from the west at night avoiding collisions with approaching ships
Enter the Solent from the west at night using lighthouse, buoy and ship lights with radar.
Use left/right keyboard keys to look around the ship.

The race
Yout task is to go round the Needles and finish as early as possible (see the route on the map, zooming it out and in by [-] and [+] keys).
Use the compass, e.g. in LOCK mode to follow the course, avoid collisions with close yachts using the steering wheel.
Switch sails on steering controls as soon as exercise begins to catch up with other yachts.