Garmin announced the unveiling of the GMR Fantom 18 and 24 at Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show 2016.
These new solid-state pulse compression radomes offer MotionScope™ Doppler technology and 40W of power, the highest in the industry for its kind. Available in an 18- or 24-inch footprint, they bring Garmin’s award-winning Fantom technology to a smaller size and lower price point, making them an attractive option for boats where an open-array radar isn’t an option. The new Fantom 18 and 24 are set to be announced at Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, Nov. 3-7, and will be on display at the Garmin booth #323-324.
Dan Bartel, Garmin Vice President of Worldwide Sales, says, “Garmin Fantom technology has revolutionised the way mariners use radar. For example, MotionScope, which instantly detects and highlights targets in different colours as they move toward or away from the boat, helping to identify collision threats faster.
“We’re excited to make this technology available to even more boaters with the introduction of the Fantom 18 and 24 radomes.”
The Fantom series uses Doppler processing to detect moving targets in real time, helping users avoid potential collisions, find flocks of birds, and track weather. Upon detection, MotionScope highlights the moving targets on the radar display with an easy-to-see color so that users can navigate around other boats or severe weather, or toward fishing spots where birds are feeding at the surface. When the Echo Trails setting is turned on, a fading “trail” on the screen can help easily identify the direction of the moving targets and potential collision threats. The trails shown are corrected for the boat’s rotation when an autopilot or heading sensor is connected to the Garmin Marine Network.
With its pulse compression technology, the Fantom 18 and 24 provide high resolution while maximising energy to enhance target detection. Pulse expansion can then maximise target size to help differentiate real targets from noise. The Fantom 18 features a 5.2-degree beam width, while the Fantom 24 offers a narrower 3.7-degree width that paints a very precise, high-resolution image.
Both Fantom radomes offer excellent range performance from 20 feet to 48 nautical miles, without compromise in ruggedness or reliability. Thanks to the dual range feature, mariners have the ability to see both close and long-range simultaneously, with an overlay on a chart for one or both ranges. This eliminates the need to toggle between views, and allows the captain to keep a close eye on immediate surroundings and those on the horizon to ensure weather patterns, land and structure can always be observed.
The Fantom 18 and 24 feature low power consumption (less than 25W) and instant turn-on, so no warm-up time is needed and users can start tracking targets instantly. They also offer Auto Bird Gain, a unique feature that lets mariners easily locate flocks of birds at the water’s surface, indicating a potential hot fishing spot. thanks to dual radar support, Fantom radomes can be used with a Fantom open-array, a GMR xHD2 open array, or a GMR xHD dome radar to provide radar redundancy and more flexibility to view different data on independent display units.
Dynamic Auto Gain and Dynamic Sea Filter continually adjust to surroundings, water and weather conditions to provide optimal performance while reducing excess noise and clutter. And MARPA settings enable the tracking of 10 targets simultaneously.
The Fantom 18 and 24 are compatible with the new GPSMAP® 722/922 and 1022/1222 series, as well as the GPSMAP 7400/7600, 8000 and 8400/8600 series. Both are expected to be available this December.
