canadian navigation buoy 'YF'

[reelfast]

with the strong ebb flowing the other day, i was pushed west to the point i was just south of race rocks and the yellow seperation buoy 'YF' on the canadian side of the line. i had my radar going to try and spot ship traffic as i was in the lane and wanted as much time to move as possible. the weird thing is i was getting a reflection off of this buoy that looked like a series of broken bars on the radar screen. normally, navigation buoys show up as a blob caused by their reflectors.

does anyone know what is on that specific seperation buoy that would cause this strange radar return???

 

[casper5280]

Not at the boat so not sure but I believe that it is a Racon - - - (O) X Band
A racon is a radar transponder commonly used to mark maritime navigational hazards. The word is a portmanteau of RAdar and beaCON.

When a racon receives a radar pulse, it responds with a signal on the same frequency which puts an image on the radar display. This takes the form of a short line of dots and dashes forming a Morse character radiating away from the location of the beacon on the normal plan position indicator radar display. The length of the line usually corresponds to the equivalent of a few nautical miles on the display.



lighthouses and navigation buoys
by far the majority are on buoys
In other parts of the World they are also used to indicate:

temporary, new and uncharted hazards (with a Morse character "D")

 

[reelfast]

thanks casper. you are spot on it is RAYCON. i miss read my chart, the traffic seperation buoy is actually "VF" and is transmitting the morse code letter "B". i checked the canadian 'notice to mariners' and found the buoy and RAYCON listed plain as day. thats the first time i have ever experienced that sort of return on my radar.