BoatsExplained.com - Radar Reflectors on boats

We started with assumption that all radar reflectors work, . but that some might work better than others. Our objective was simply to fmd out which was best. In that respect, our efforts were fruitless. .
What we found was that in smooth water, a reflector whose RCS (Radar Cross Section) is small (compared to the boat as a whole) achieves very little - doing no harm, but not much good either. Those with an RCS similar to that of the boat sometimes reinforce the radar echo but also sometimes cancel it out - so the end result is that they don't make much difference to your overall chances of being seen.
To be effective, a reflector needs an RCS significantly bigger than the boat itself... but unless you know the RCS of the boat, how do you know how big that should be? We thought the RCS of a Sonata would be small, but it turned out to be much the same as that of most reflectors.
Mounting a big reflector on'a small boat poses practical problems: the ones that worked best were too big or too heavy to be a viable proposition - and on a bigger boat you need an even bigger reflector, so the problem is just the same.
In rough weather, things are rather different. Once the waves' are big enough to hide the boat from the radar, a reflector mounted well above deck level may be the only thing the radar can actually 'see'. Having said that, most sailors feel that rough weather is the very time they want to lower both the windage and centre of gravity of their boats, not raise it by hoisting a big heavy radar reflector!
On the strength of what I've seen so far, you certainly won't see Bear on Top sporting a radar reflector this year. Instead, I'm going to adopt the cyclist's approach to survival: I'll assume that I'm invisible, and behave accordingly!

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