Oliver, You asked how a radar can maintain an interpretable display in active or confused seas (probably when you need the radar most). Well, first let me say I'm no expert, but I'll share what I've learned. Radar is a fairly simple device, a pulse of energy is transmitted, and then it's echo is listened for. The time it takes to come back is measured, and translated into an image on the display that represents the distance and bearing of the object. All you see on the screen is pixels that light up. The stronger the return, the brighter, or larger the pixel. If the boat is in heavy seas, the radar antenna is going to be swinging around, and it might seem like the transmitted energy could miss the target, or the seas could "hide" the object. In reality, the same way a skipper would eventually see another boat, because they were both on the top of a swell at the same time, a Radar will eventually "see" the other object, and paint a return on the screen. Now, the Radar has a neat feature, where you can make an adjustment that will tend to reduce the clutter associated with any returns that come off the face of a wave. This does reduce the quality of the return from a real object, but the benefit is a target will start to "stand out" from the surrounding "clutter". This is why it's so important to use your Radar all the time, so you know how to tune it when the weather is good and bad, and you can see the results of your tuning efforts. Surprisingly, in the Pacific Northwest, the time a Radar is most useful is when you have Fog. Often the wind and seas are very calm with Fog, and these issues don't even come up. On those occasions, the value of Radar can not be understated. Last summer I traveled from Point Wilson to Friday Harbor with visibility of less than 20 yards. During this trip I conversed with a huge commercial container ship to cross the shipping lanes, and took a 40' sailboat in tow, as he was stranded in the shipping lanes just of Smith Island. That was quite a trip, all with little or no visibility! Rest assured, if you think Radar would be a valuable investment in your boat, you will find it easy to learn to use! Hope this helped. Scott Bulger Knot@Work, 31' Camano Email: scottebulger@comcast.net