🔍 Key Concepts

• Radar shadowing and masking by land masses such as headlands and mountains • How radar beam width affects the apparent size and bearing of targets, especially for tangent bearings on land • The difference between small, low targets (like a small island or low ship) and high, strong reflectors (like steep cliffs or mountains) on the radar screen

💭 Think About

• Compare the geographic view with the radar screen: which objects that you see visually are missing or distorted on the radar picture? • Ask yourself which effect (shadowing, masking, or beam width) would cause a target in that specific location to disappear or shift in bearing. • Look at the position of Ship No. 1, Ship No. 2, and the small island relative to the headlands: which one lies directly behind higher land from your position?

✅ Before You Answer

• Verify which side of the vessel the steep, high land is on and which objects lie directly behind it from your line of sight (possible radar shadow). • Check how a tangent bearing to a headland is affected by beam width: does beam width make the contact appear inside or outside the true shoreline? • Confirm whether a small, low island in open water with no higher land behind it is likely to be entirely lost due to beam width alone at this range.