C16 interference - Raymarine Auto-pilot.

[Seven Spades]

I have Raymarine autopilot that puts out a carrier on C16, my main VHF with mast mounted Ariel is unaffected but I cannot use a handheld on C16 unless power to the Auto-pilot is switched off. The Autopilot does not need to be in use just have power to it and the problem is intermittent so it is seemingly impossible to get engineer out to fix it. the worse of it is I spent £170 on a new handheld at the weekend only to find out that the problem was not with the old handheld

Is my problem unique? I am not an electrician so I don't know how to fix this problem. The strange thing is no other VHF channel is affected.

Any suggestions?

 

[davidwf]

You have not said if its an inboard AP or not, if it is they need earthing either to an external earth, ie hull fitting or to the battery -ve. Mine is connected to battery -ve. The earth is a seperate connection to the smartpilot controler.

I did think this was just to keep the AP happy and stop any interference to it, but perhaps its to do with RF. If it's already connected perhaps it has a bad connection which is causing the intermittent interference.

 

[Seven Spades]

It's a proper AP with a big motor connected to the rudder stock. I think the controller is an S1.

 

[duncan99210]

Check the security of the connections to the autopilot control head and to the course computer. Given that this is an intermitant problem, it sounds like that a loose conncetion somewhere in the system is giving rise to an RF signal that is interferring with your handheld. Also, you mention that the system can be in standby mode to cause the problem; in addition to checking the connections to the control head (the display unit you use to set course etc), there might also be a problem with the rudder reference unit connections (this is the small box connected to the rudder post as well as the steering ram - the large box you mention earlier). Check the connections to this both at the rudder and at the course computer.

Other than that, I'm stumped. Never heard of this sort of problem before.