Search and rescue transponder

The radar-SART is used to locate a survival craft or distressed vessel by creating a series of dots on a rescuing ship's radar display.

Shipboard Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS) include one or more search and rescue locating devices.

The radar-SART may be triggered by any X-band radar within a range of approximately 8 nautical miles (15 kilometers).

If the radar-SART is within range, the frequency match during each of the 12 slow sweeps will produce a response on the radar display, thus a line of 12 dots equally spaced by about 0.64 nautical mile (1,185 km) will be shown.

When the range to the radar-SART is reduced to about 1 nautical mile (1,852 km), the radar display may show also the 12 responses generated during the fast sweeps.

A standard SART 9 GHz radar transponder, produced by Jotron, on board a Norwegian ferry. The unit is 251 mm high.