Iris PC radar, a new face
Iris PC Radar is a relatively new product purportedly able to "interface as a slave or display-only with almost any radar antenna, and at present can control Raymarine, Kelvin Hughes and the Simrad/Koden/Anritsu family...soon to be more". Moreover, "its 8-bit digitization gives far superior picture quality and sea clutter performance compared to ordinary boat radars", and it incorporates a target tracker with AIS input and S-57 chart overlay (screen below, bigger here). Iris is currently marketed for harbor surveillance and is also integrated into the interesting monitoring and control system FT NavVision, but--head's up, integraters and developers!--owner Ledwood Technology is "looking for partners to sell and continue to develop the radar." My sense, by the way, is that 2007 is going to be a significant year for marine radar.
That's pretty cool, especially being able to see the AIS targets over the radar returns.
This would be an nice ad hoc way of testing out some of the questions about A/B duplex/simplex AIS receivers. If the AIS circle stays over the radar return then there isn't a problem, or if it starts getting misaligned then there is.
Maybe someone set set this up with a good view of a busy commercial harbor.
Bob