Why would you be "surprised" if a single target resolves to multiple targets? You weren't going to go thru the middle of the single target - were you?

If a small boat is in line with a very large boat that is 1/2 mile behind it and both are headed directly at me - I would be turning away from the large boat at a range of miles and would quickly resolve the single target into two targets as the relative bearings changed. Again - what am I missing?

I can resolve a row of anchor buoys that are 100 yards off shore into individual targets from a distance of 1/2 mile - I can see each buoy and the shore line behind them. What am I missing in that picture?

Smith and Minor islands in the east entrance to the Staits of Juan de Fuca are a classic radar problem. There is a 50- high bluff on Smith and a long low sandspit connecting to the 20' high Minor a mile to the east. I've passed by there dozens of times - my radar can always show me both Smith and Minor and the connecting spit. Coming from the east - the two islands look like a single island but I don't see where that is a problem - I am going to avoid the eastern island and thereby avoid the land that connects the two islands. As I move north or south the radar begins to display the separation of the two islands and eventually shows the almost submerged sandspit. Again, I don't see what HD or broadband does for me in this case.

In all my years on Puget Sound, in a lot of restricted visibility and very heavy traffic, I've never had a problem with the scenarios you describe.

I've crossed many US and Candian Pacific coastal bars in heavy conditions and fog. There is usually a fair amount of traffic in those channels - I've never had a problem using the radar to go from buoy to buoy while also keeping track of oncoming and following traffic.

If I can resolve the tender to a gillnetter when they are separated by 50 yards and are one mile off - what would HD or broadband give me that I currently don't have?

I don't have MARPA but am fast and good with hand radar plots, CPA, TCPA...etc - Even with closing speeds of 30 knots - a two minute plot begun at 4 miles still gives me six minutes (~3/4 mile travel time at 7 knots) of avoidance time. I'm not sure earlier MARPA stands out as a benefit. In constrained shipping lanes with diverging channels you have to let them get close enough to be sure of their intention.

I love new technology - being a consultant in new computer technology allowed me to retire at age 52, so I am worried I am missing the not so obvious to me benefits of this new radar technology. My old R20XX has made me feel informed, safe, and comfortable for many years - maybe I was just ignorant of what I was not seeing.

OTH - why not use HD or broadband - it sounds like it works at least as well as my R20XX and those colors sure are cool to look at!