I'm not sure this is the proper department to send this to, but thought I would share a recent experience with your product. I purchased version 8, along with the IR2-4D 4kw 25" Radome and the heading sensor through Rogers Marine, Marty Kirk. My experience with Rogers and Marty was excellent from start to finish. He even took time to give me some training on the use of the software. I installed the radar dome and wired the hardware and Marty came to the boat and we swung the compass and he got it all working correctly. Last weekend we made our maiden voyage from Portland to Port Angeles, Wa.. I forgot to say the equiptment is used on my 43', steel, cutter rigged sailboat. Everything worked perfectly going down the Columbia River. It was good to have time to train my crew on the basics of using the software. When it got dark, it was useful to see those ships coming on radar. I had installed the radome on a gimbaled bracket attached to the backstay. We had a rough Columbia Bar crossing, not dangerously so, but uncomfortably because we had missed the tide and were crossing during the flood and bucking a 3 knot current. Not good for a heavy boat. We did a lot of yawing back and forth and finally cleared the river around 2345 hours. At about 0200 hrs on Friday I got back up to do my watch and found that the radome had been somehow separated from its mounting bracket and had slammed from side to side on my backstay. My crew informed me that it had to be toast inside since they kept hearing the sound of breaking glass. It had been hanging by the wiring cable, only, so we attached a line to get the weight off the wire and lashed it to the backstay and pushpit. When we arrive in Port Angeles, I took the cover off to find everything looking in order. There was no broken glass and I really couldn't remember seeing any glass when I was making the installation. The wiring connectors had been pulled from the pins and a couple of the pins were bent. I straightened them out and reconnected them and put it back together and back up on the mount. I turned it on and it worked perfectly. I was so impressed that it could take this punishment and still be in good order so I wanted to thank you for providing such a good product! I love the software and look forward to learning more about using it before my planned trip to Alaska and back beginning in May. Anyway, keep up the good work! Michael
P.S. I am in the process of finding out what went wrong with the bracket and don't plan to leave the dock until I know it has been remedied!
Michael Downing, CRS
Windermere, Cronin & Caplan Realty Group, Inc.
Portland, OR
www.downinghomes.com