>Is there any advantage/disadvantage between color and monochrome? (Other than $$$.) 24 miles vs. 36 miles? ($$$ again, and would we see weather better?.) We have an old Raytheon 2600, and while our initial intention was to get rid of it and replace it with a new Furuno right after we bought the boat, we have since decided to keep the Raytheon despite its lack of a daylight screen and other techie doodads. The thing is just too good to get rid of. Whoever set up the antenna (it's mounted on the upper front of the flying bridge) did a fabulous job-- the thing will see crab pot buoys at two miles, which is one of the main things we need to see in the area we boat in. So our plan now is to keep it until it stops performing the way it performs now. Anyway, as far as color vs. mono, my advice based on our experience with both radar and chart plotters is to get the sharpest display your money can by. If it happens to be color, that's fine, but I put sharpness-- or perhaps clarity is a better term for a radar display-- way above color/mono on the list of priorities. It's been my experience and observation (so far) that mono displays, and CRT displays, are noticeably and sometimes dramatically sharper than LCD and/or color displays. There are probably exceptions if you throw enough money at the situation, but for the most part, I haven't seen or used anything better than a mono CRT display with regards to sharpness. As to range, I believe Capt. Maurice is correct in that for coastal cruising you're going to be on 3 or 6 miles most of the time. Those are the ranges we use most frequently on our radar, and we do a fair amount of boating in the fog. However, I have seen the comment many times from people who know about these things that buying the most powerful system you can afford or fit onto the boat does have an advantage. While you may not need a 72 mile reach, and most of our boats put the antenna at an altitude that wouldn't see 72 miles anyway unless you trailered the boat to the top of a big hill, the advantage of this kind of power means the set will have that much more sensitivity at the short ranges you are most likely to be working in. So if the choice comes down to a 24 mile set and a 36 mile set, all else being equal (sharpness, easy-to-use controls, good screen size, reliability, etc), I would go with the 36 mile set. Capt. Maurice has made some very valid observations about electronics in general and radar in particular over the last couple of months. One of these is that the best nav equipment is the simplest. In other words, you don't want to be caught out in a sudden fog, or in darkness in a high-traffic area, or with a boat problem, or some other distraction like really rough water, and then try to "remember" how to do something with the nav system. You don't want to have to depend on finding some critical function that's buried four layers down in a menu somewhere. With radar, an easy-to-use control-- a big knob preferably-- for each of the basic functions ends up being the best setup when you're under pressure. At the dock, hey, no problem to page through a few touch-screen menus or whatever, and you can always look up stuff in the operators manual. It's a different matter in the reality of the pilothouse when things are not going so smoothly. So whatever you buy, my recommendation is to go for the sharpest display you can find, the most intuitive controls you can find, and the most powerful set you can afford without sacrificing quality and reliability. In other words, better in my opinion to buy a 26 mile Furuno than a 48 mile set made by Estaban Funman's Radar and Storm Door Co. Color vs. mono is a personal preference, but I will take either one if it's the sharpest. And unless your '80s vintage Raytheon is giving you problems or you don't like having to use a hood during the day if the set requires it, don't automatically consign it to the scrap heap just because it's old technology. Based on what I've had the chance to observe on the boats I've been on that have much newer sets of the same power (or lower) as ours, I'd stack our ancient 2600 up against any of them in terms of sensitivity and display clarity. But if you don't like using your old Raytheon even if it's working properly, don't hesitate to replace it either. There's not much point in having a radar on board you don't like using or have trouble interpreting. The ease of installation will obviously depend on the configuration of your boat and where your current radar components are mounted. Our boat with its flying bridge mount makes replacing a radar child's play. The antenna is on a mount on the front of the flying bridge and the radar display unit is on a retractable panel that hinges down from the overhead above the helm. So the antenna cable run is about five feet long and is totally accessible for it's entire length and at both ends in the big open space under the flying bridge consol. An antenna on a mast mount is going to require more effort to connect. But I would assume it's just a matter of running the new cable where the old one is. Perhaps there will be some way to "tie" the new cable to the old one so you can use the old one to pull the new one through the run. ______________________________ C. Marin Faure GB36-403 "La Perouse" Bellingham, Washington