Marina cut the radar cable!

[tanksalot]

In checking out my E-27 after the marina took down the mast and put the boat up for winter storage, I noticed that the large, multi-stranded wire for the Furuno radar was cut. Last year a different marina had called me prior to lowering the mast, and I had to come down and unstring the radar wire so they could drop the mast.

The marina owner told me I should have a connector in the head for the radar cable, but most of the things I've read online say that cutting a radar cable significantly lowers its' range.

Comments? Similar experiences?

 

[Howard Keiper]

Well, that's a real bummer.

I'm looking at the possibility of putting a break in my own cable.

Your particular problem won't be the degradation of the signal...you probably wouldn't even notice it unless you spend a lot of time with your radar.

The problem is that that cable has as many as 9-12 individual conductors in it, at least one of which is a small gauge video coax. Re connecting these, both ends, requires a type of connector commonly called an 'Amphenol Connector'....old military trained technicians will recall these. They work, and have since WW II, but are the devil to build/install correctly, and you have to do two of them....outside your boat. You're going to need an ace technician who really knows how to solder.

The gist of this is, you're better off just getting the marina to replace the cable.

howard

 

[Rob Hessenius]

Cable

Tanks- I'm sure you can get a new cable. See if the marina will take responsibility. What Furuno unit? If its old, I would think there are a few collecting dust in West Marine's inventory that will come by cheap. Rob Hessenius

 

[Loren Beach]

'Amphenol Connector' trivia

The 1988 Apelco radar that came with our boat had multi-wire cable the size diameter of a large thumb...
To help route it through the innards of the boat, from the midsection where the screen was located to the transom where the radar mast was at they had cut the cable and put in a connector like the one Howard describes. (that cable had been led, forcefully, up under the hull-to-deck joint where it barely fit.)

Big round aluminum thingie with a fine-thread screw connector to hold the halves together. Lots of little pins on the one side, although I do not know if all the connections were used. This part and the attendant labor probably cost a fair portion of the whole radar/install $ package!

I cargo shifted the whole assembly when I put in a new radar last year.
The new Furuno 1715 has a much smaller dia. cable.

FWIW, I also vote for having the yard replace it...

Good luck,
Loren in PDX

 

[Guy Stevens]

Rules of not having issues, and what to do next.

Never Never Never let anyone step or unstep your mast without your being there. Most riggers I know (other than myself) will cut a radar cable. Yards especially don't want to deal with this complexity. It is one of the reasons that we are also encouraging all of our clients to move the radar to the backstay. It makes the pulling of the mast so so so much easier..... not only for us, but it means that they can pull other places with other people...


Now you have two choices, get a new cable, pay for it yourself, have the yard pay for it, or have someone come down and install a set of terminal strips that allow you to disconnect the cable the next time that this happens. Really even though every piece of directions in the universe say that you can't have a cut in the cable, you can. We install them with the cut in the cable all the time and a terminal block near the base of the mast, so that the mast can come out and go back in.

The issue with the connectors for these cables and the reasons that we don't order and install the custom furuno, raytheon, garmin what have you cable, is that it does not solve the problem, the plug is still too big to get out of the boat, the simple terminal strip, with all of the wires set up works fine.

If you are worried about signal reduction, then you can make the only rf carrying part of the cable, which is in the center, and is a coax cable connected outside of the terminal strip and cover, and connect the two sides with a BNC connector. (Note you can use an N connector however they are a real hard connector for most of the amatuers to solder in place, the BNC is in the same frequency range as the radar units, and is much easier for novices to solder, or to purchase a solderless BNC connector.) However the BNC is not required just what happens when you are a bit OCD, and have worked in the industry for way too many years. The terminal strip is fine.

Guy

 

[Howard Keiper]

I agree with Guy except when the mast is stepped on deck. I've never found a satisfactory way or place to put terminal blocks where I could get the cable to them through my mast plate.

I put my antenna on the backstay too, for the same reason.

But I generally agree w/Guy...if you can get around the video issue, or even want to, terminal blocks will work fine.

howard

 

[windjunkee]

I have some experience with this issue on VOR.

I built a Nav/Comm station belowdecks and when I did, I moved the radar display from the helm to the Nav station. In order to get the cable fed there, it had to be cut and spliced. I had a marine electrician do the work and he mentioned what an intricate splice it was -- Intricate, but ugly, because the splice was huge. When we shipped the boat back from Mexico, we had to disconnect or cut the wires coming down the mast. The radar cable was one that had to be cut, but we cut it right at the splice.
There was no loss of performance with the splice.

When our electrician came back to hook everything back up, he had a better way to do it. He made a junction box and connected each of the wires through the box. He had to jury rig it, but it is much neater now

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA