TARGET TRACKING DEVICES

Under the new IMO performance standards relating to the shipboard radar equipment, all of them shall now be capable of displaying the AIS information; the term ARPA, in term, is planned to be replaced with the TTD, standing for the target tracking device. Nowadays, a broad range of such devices is available, and the personnel involved in operation of this equipment, shall be provided with the familiarization training at the time of the boarding, and such training shall be equipment-specific.

The present booklet shall accompany this video training film and is mainly intended to be used by the navigation officers to train the cadets and also to be used by all other people on board to get familiarized with the main issues related to the target tracking as applied to the collision avoidance. Maritime radars enable the vessels to pinpoint other ships and to locate the own position of the vessel relative to the landmarks.

The working principle of the radar consists of sending the beam radio wave pulses and amplification, processing and further displaying of the returning echoes - this allows the radio operator to "see" the ships which would normally not be visible due to the mist of fog, or lack of lighting. It shall be noted that the echoes from some targets may not be strong enough and therefore not display while other objects may be obscured...