A Garmin radar & 740s chartplotter question

[georgepet]

Hi all.....

I have a Garmin 740 chartplotter which is not Garmin marine network capable and therefore cannot take a networked Garmin Radar input but can only be directly connected. Thinking on how to do this as to not just throw away the current chartplotter and economically add a radar input to a lower helm I started thinking about an A/B switch. (note some other garmin data i.e. fuel flow, transducer output can be NMEA networked to instruments like a GMS 10) I don't have the cable with me so that might affect the "other" details they refer to.

Anyways, I contacted some mil suppliers and got this response from Dowkey. Has anyone tried this and any comments? DowKey message follows:

If I understand your email message correctly, you want to take the output of a Garmin marine radar system and feed it to two Garmin 740 chartplotters. Not knowing any other details I would recommend Dow-Key Microwave part number 401-1008. This is a manual SP2T coaxial switch with SMA female connectors.

The output of the Garmin marine radar system would be connected to the common port of the switch. One of the Garmin 740 chartplotters would be connected to the normally open port of the switch and the second 740 chartplotter would be connected to the normally closed port of the switch. You can then manually toggle between the two chartplotters.

cheers

G

[Stripermann2]

My advise would be to call or email Jim at BOEmarine.com, explain what you want to do. Very technical and helpful and he could help on what you could or should not do, with regards to your set up.