Recent content by mikejames

A long time back I bought an HF3M and this was hopeless. Its concept dated from before every PC having a soundcard so it fed its signal in using the serial port of the PC, using a crude analog to digital converter. Now all PCs have soundcards, so I disconnected the analog to digital converter...

Yes the NASA AIS will work with Garmin 550 plotters. but based on experience with an ICOM505-AIS single channel AIS receiver, I would recommend not buying any single channel switched or polling AIS receiver. Go for something like the COMAR AIS-2 2 channel parallel receiver which I bought for...

If they are not changing course then they may only be transmitting every 2 minutes. At 15 knots there is your half a mile. Actually I think Southampton VTS is commanding a lower update rate than this to allow everybody some chance of getting through .... I think that typically its about once...

That will produce a lot of fibreglass dust, as all of the GRP that makes up the hole will be turned to dust and the flat wood drill bit will get somewhat blunt cutting the glass. I would go for the hole saw , as this makes less dust and provides you with nice core samples of the laminate...

The US military will not accept a situation where the USA no longer controls satellite navigation. One of the original ideas for the European system was that they would be European GPS satellites, but the US did not like the fact that that would result in GPS carrying on working without their...

The 'burp' technique is to squeeze from both sides of the Volvo seal to make a small gap at the top and when air stops coming out, it is sealed. But the amount of water you describe is more than I would expect from a Volvo seal in good condition : when my boat was new to me but with an old...

It should work. giving your signals a better line of sight . But it loses some signal in cable loss, reducing your transmitter power, so it may be better to look at antennas with some gain. Otherwise while your WiFi USB stick might hear the access point better with the repositioned antenna , the...

Re: SPINNAKER- NEED ADVICE In windy conditions, and waves to match, you have to work the helm to try to make sure the waves dont push the stern around, promoting the rolls. Sometimes they will happen and provided they dont build up you can live with them. You also want to keep the weight back...

As others say, flogging and mistreatment while putting them away are more likely to damage the sails than storage. I finally replaced some from 1997 this year. Regularly used laminate with taffeta. The stitching wears out before the cloth goes. We also won the GK24 class in the rather windy...

Because my chart plotter is small and my boat is small, I have it mounted with the log and wind display in a swinging box which swings out at the top of the companionway hinged on one side. It has hinges at the forward end of the box, and shock cord arranged between two screws which causes the...

Is that a string to hang it from the Christmas tree or an aerial ?

Hopefully that unit pictured is connected to a different antenna - there is a for sale thread about these on this site.here I had a bad VHF reception and transmit problem and I found the Buccaneer waterproof connector by the keel-stepped mast foot was doing its job well. When I unplugged it...

In terms of sizing of inverter and calorifier as inverter load then 800 watts from the 1200 watt inverter is OK. Its not like power tools where the start load is much higher than the average. But the battery capacity needed to store the energy will be large. Quick estimate : to heat 25 litres...

If it only has 'some filaments broken' that shouldnt have stopped it working. One strand intact should keep it working . Something else is broken. If it stopped working when you damaged the cable, you might have broken the insulated core of the cable as well. Cut out the damaged bit and you...

Raymarine or Simrad ? : standalone or NMEA/networked ? I wanted to upgrade from a Seafarer Mini Seacourse as this was functional but limited. I decided to go for a Simrad TP22 because I had heard fewer stories of failure. This may be because they are less popular than Raymarine hence there...