Upgrading electronics

[Johnny Electron]

Here is my two cents. You would never put anything like that spotlight you have in front of a radar. It is X-band not X-Ray so you won't see through objects. I never recommend having anything between the radar and the forward movement. It will miss targets. I would agree with Sparky that the other boat has the radar too far back or not up high enough to clear the bulk of the boat. Your photos are hard to tell but yours doesn't appear to be as bad, plus he can be hitting those solar panels which can lead to reflections and possibly not good for the panels as they conduct RF that it is being hit with.

 

[Quitsa]

You can calculate an approximation of the effect of the mounting location on the radar using your perhaps rusted high school geometry. You need a few measurements: distance from radome to hard top forward edge, height of center of radome above hardtop and waterline, down angle of mount at rest, and approximate running angle of the boat at cruise.

Using my boat as an example, the center of the radar array is 12 feet above the water and 18 feet from the bow and the mount has a down angle of 5 degrees, the radar beam width is 23 degrees, and the boat runs 5 degrees bow up at cruise. The center of the beam hits the water about 112 feet in front of the bow and the inner edge where it will begin losing performance is about 50 feet in front of the bow.

Unless the center of the beam is pointed well inside the edge of the hardtop, it won't have too big an effect in creating a "blind spot". The spotlight is a bigger concern as noted above.