Simrad Halo vs. Garmin Fantom 

On water shootout 7 July 2016 Introduction Shootout Location & Details 

 Testing Location 

• Waitemata Harbour & Hauraki Gulf, Auckland, New Zealand 

     

System Setup & Details

• Fantom running latest software (2.10) Garmin 7612 Running latest software 

• Halo tested with NSS12 Evo2 • Heading Source, Precision-9 

• Fantom mounted higher than Halo to give best possible opportunity to perform (remember that!) 

• Auto settings used at all times for fairness, • Screenshots taken at same time, or as close as possible 

• Photo’s shown are the actual targets, unless indicated 

• Sea calm, foggy conditions System Setup & Details 

Comparison Screenshots 

A:B Comparisons with callouts © 

Marina Use-Close Range

Navico Halo has a much smaller main bang, and can see spare berths and poles in the marina fairway, still useable in this situation, notice the spare berth immediately to port. 

 

Marina Use-Close Range 

Halo has a much smaller main bang, at minimum range, Halo still useable here  

Entering & Exiting Confined Spaces 

When entering a confined space like a breakwater or marina entrance, radar is a useful tool to assist in seeing the gap, 

Halo is giving a clearer image in this situation 

Short Range Congested Harbour

Seeing all targets on a radar screen is critical here, the biggest risk of collision will occur in this situation, a heavily congested harbour, Fantom is just not seeing some of the targets that Halo is, and the targets are there, also notice how halo is providing much clearer target separation, this assists greatly with situational awareness. Short Range, Congested Harbour 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 

Short Range, Congested Harbour 

Another example of Halo’s superior target separation & sensitivity 

Short Range, Approaching a Boat Ramp 

Approaching a beach, anchorage or boat ramp is a critical time, often there is more congestion and small moorings and marker buoys are prevalent in these areas, Fantom is just not seeing these small targets 

Short Range-Picking up a Bouy 

© Navico Yellow special marker at ~0.5nm, not seen on Fantom 

Moderate Range, Open Harbour 

Moderate range target detection is important, particularly to long range cruisers, or commercial operators such as Law Enforcement or SAR, note the target at approx. 1-2 o'clock at 3nm, 40ft Yacht out to starboard, not visible at all on Fantom, visible to the naked eye and low quality camera phone. Fantom misses this completely, it is also missing other highlighted targets 

Moderate Range, Approaching Harbour 

“A” Bouy is the beacon that indicates the start of the channel to enter the harbour, this will be an important radar target for a user, as it gives a reference for what to steer towards to find safe passage, this target was seen by Halo at 4nm on 70% of rotations, Fantom began to see it at 2.5nm on only 50% of rotations. At 20kts, that’s approx. 4:30 minutes earlier with Halo 

Medium Range, Navigating Channel 

Good target detection is critical for navigating in restricted visibility within a channel or constricted area. Once again, halo is just seeing more targets, that are real, this is supported by the lack of any sea clutter shown by Halo, a clean image, but strong target returns. Also where highlighted, we are separating 5 targets, where Fantom sees 4. LETS COUNT 1 2 3 4 5 

Long Range, Distant Land Mass 

Despite being Halo being 25W to Fantoms 40W, Halo is showing stronger returns for distant land mass, one would expect Halo will have an advantage when tracking weather or birds……… 

Bird Mode

We spotted some unexplained clutter on Halo at 1-2nm, we assumed they were birds given flat conditions, so we used binoculars to verify, it was the tail end of a workup. We switched to bird mode on both Halo and Fantom, Fantom did not show the birds at all, we also tried to see the birds on the Fantom in a normal mode and increased gain manually, we could still not see birds. 

Weather Mode 

Weather Mode Shots taken in a different session, based on the roof of the Navico office, Fantom picking up some interference from Pulse radars on the roof (unintentional), Halo providing more definitive results.

Weather Mode

And again.................. © Navico 

Weather Mode 

And again……………… © Navico 

Weather Mode 

And again……………… © Navico 

Dual Range 

Dual Range showing Fantom losing many targets, © Navico 

Dual Range 

And again………. © Navico 

Garmin Advantages 

Where they were strong © Navico 

Where Garmin Performed 

• Doppler, was working well, very simple to use 

• GPU rendering 

• Pinch to Zoom in radar 

• MARPA Solid.  

Doppler

• Doppler was working well on the water 

• Very simple to use 

• Target colouring representing actual situation well 

• Some situations could be confusing if there is over reliance on Red/Green 

Doppler Care

• There could be situations where over reliance on Doppler target colouring could lead to a false sense of security, stationary, slow moving targets or targets crossing (without coming nearer) are not coloured, but they are still there, in this screenshot we have a slow sailing vessel at 12 o’clock posing a risk of collision, however its is not coloured as dangerous. 

• Doppler is absolutely a fantastic feature, but like any tool it needs to be used with care 

GPU Rendering 

• Garmin radar redraw very smooth, particularly whilst turning • Pinch to zoom and panning radar very smooth with no lag © Navico 

MARPA 

Garmin MARPA solid, performance seemed very close to the updated BETA version of MARPA we were testing on Halo, which seems to be a great improvement. 

 Earlier Conclusions Supported 

• After the initial analysis post Miami of Fantom specifications and comparisons with earlier screenshots, we expected results as we have seen on the water • Earlier Fantom screenshots from Ben Elision compared to Halo are showing similar areas of weakness around target sensitivity 

• Halo is showing superior target detection, range resolution & azimuth resolution, and lower sidelobes. 

36nm Performance 

36nm Range Taken in Miami within the same few days Footer 32 Many surface targets clearly evident on Halo that are not shown at all on Fantom Halo showing land mass/buildings more clearly defined 

Close Range Performance 

Same location, taken within same few days of each other. Halo does seem to be clearer and crisper with less clutter and more well defined targets 

Key Points 

• We absolutely went out to do these comparisons fairly, however the Garmin performance may lead to a conclusion we had a strong bias in our testing. This is not the case and we actively sought better results form Fantom but could just not find them 

• We can only conclude that Fantom target detection has issues, and we would not be happy with the level of performance we saw if it were our product. 

• Some of the issue seems to be in their sea clutter settings, these just seem to be too aggressive in many situations and attenuate small targets. This is most likely fixable. 

• The use of only 2-3 CHIRP’s in transmission also causes problems, as at certain ranges the CHIRP is losing energy, before the next CHIRP is used, hence weaker or no returns in certain range bands. Halo’s use of 1 pulse and 5 CHIRPS allows maximum energy on target and all ranges with no compromise. This is most likely not fixable easily. 

• Halo is providing superior performance for a more competitive price, Doppler is an excellent feature, but we expect it does not make up for fundamental issues with target detection