Is my Raydar antenna to close to my head?

[bigeasy1]

I know this will sound stupid to those of you who are familiar with radar,but I'm a rookie at it and need some advice.
I bought a Raymarine SL72 Plus radar last season and have been slowly getting used to it as we are out fishing.I've been running it on clear days so that I can get familiar with what things such as tankers,freighters,boats,rain etc.look like on the screen.
AS I do this I read the instruction book whenever I get the chance.
I think I know enough(hopefully) to be able to decipher targets if we get caught in fog,now that I've been using it.

The one thing I'm not sure of and stupidly never thought about until I recently read about is the distance from the antenna dome to us in the boat.
I have it mounted on my radar arch which is about a foot over our heads(when standing),and behind us if we are sitting at the wheel.Of course if we are sitting as we normally would be, the clearance is much greater.
Is this to close?,and could we be putting ourselves in danger.As you can see,I have it mounted on the arch,and not on an elevated mount.
Should I lift it higher,or is it ok the way it is.Maybe this picture will give you an idea.
Any help is appreciated.

[Old'sCool]

Under the beam you should be good. Check out the Simrad 3G/4G radars

[clouder0126]

I have heard its just a myth. It dosent affect you

[BigLew]

It will effect you! And its effects are not the same, but similar to a micro wave oven, albeit at a lower power and higher frequency.

In the picture, your head is in its path. Sitting at your helm, it would not be. Think of it as a donut, with the radome as the hole in the donut. The beam will "generally" radiate out from the unit at a 25 degree wedge in all directions. That means that if you placed a plane (think a flat dinner plate) on top of the dome and then lowered it the inch or two so that it is at the midpoint of the radome, the radar beam would be radiating out 12.5 degrees ABOVE and 12.5 degrees below that midpoint plane. (This allows the boat to rock some before there is loss of target.)

If your body tissue is within that wedge, then it is being hit. Raising the dome up will help substantialy. That, and as captain, you should keep a close eye on the position of your passengers and crew.

This should give you a whole new view of those guys sitting on their flybridge with the radome mounted to the front of the flybridge. I hope they don't plan to have any more children!

[BigLew]

Re-reading the above message, I realized I forgot to make a small but significant point or two.

The power is comparatively low. Any impact will be cummulative. It's power is relative to the inverse square rule, which is; If you double the distance, the power is reduced by a factor of 4. (ex. At four feet the power is one fourth of what it is at 2 feet, etc.) So you can see that how close you are to the source matters a lot. Also, the duration of the exposure is obviously significant as well.

The only real practicle threat is if you have part of your body in the beam's path for a signifcant period of time at fairly close range. I would think that to be standing in the beam's path while fishing or some other similar activity on a boat of size of a SeaCraft, there could be detectable changes. Also, the guy sitting at the flybridge while the radar is on will have damage.

[bigeasy1]

Lew,
Thanks for the great info.It's appreciated.This is what happens when a person like me who is competent mechanically,but has zero experience with other things can get themselves in trouble.
I never even thought about any problems that may happen from radar,until I came across something about it on some website.Of course did I read all the installation manual??,only enough to to get the right electrical connections.
I figured why spend the money on a raised mount when I can just mount it directly to the plate on the arch.
Looks like the old saying that one knows enough just to be dangerous possibly turned out to be true for me.This is what I get for thinking I know what I'm doing.

The good thing(actually it a bad thing) is that I unfortunately don't get to use the boat all that much,maybe a total of 20 days a season, and for the most part we don't have the radar on.When it is on,it's usually on standby mode.
If I have to depend on it in thick fog,most likely I'll be sitting along with my crew and heading in to port.The unit will be several feet above me then.

Even so,I'm going to buy a raised mount for it.Thanks for the help.

[BigLew]

Good insurance plan, but remember. If you need to use it based on conditions, use it! The threat is real, but must be kept in its proper perspective.

Some might say I am too cautious, but better to know the hazzards and deal with them than not know and put yourself in needless jeoprady. There are generally too many ways we can screw ourselves without ignoring what is knowable!