Ian_Rob
Well-Known Member
Whilst installation manuals say that radar and antennae cabling shouldn’t be spilt, it is presumably normal practice to join the cables inside the boat, at the foot of the mast, to allow for subsequent mast-stepping?
Mast Cabling
- Thread starter Ian_Rob
- Start date
PetiteFleur
Well-Known Member
That's what I did when I rewired the mast a few yrs back. In particular the vhf antenna had a plug & socket just behind the headling, made by Shakespeare from memory, with an Index deck gland. The nav lights had deck sockets. Seems to work ok.
Boathook
Well-Known Member
The instructions for my furuno radar said that as well and the dealer said it was because some of the wires are very thing and difficult to reconnect. I got round it by mounting my radar quite low down on the mast and ran the cable in trunking attached to the mast. Mast down means unbolting radar and opening up trunking to remove cable.
Ian_Rob
Well-Known Member
Thankyou
jiris
Well-Known Member
The very reason for radar cable is, there is at least one coax inside that requires a special connector. As long as you do it right, all will be fine. Do not also neglect connecting the shielding.
prv
Well-Known Member
Is it a modern radar or an older one?
All modern radars from the main leisure brands are connected using ethernet, so if you can crimp RJ45 plugs (or know someone who can) then you can split and rejoin them fairly easily. I’d suggest ordering an IP-rated coupler to join them with, just in case - even if you don’t have deck leaks, there can be condensation in the kinds of crevices these things get jammed into.
If it’s an older radar with analogue wiring you can still cut and join it if necessary, but it’s quite an involved job and you need to do it well to avoid degrading the signal. You’ll probably end up fanning the cable out into two or three connectors - Superseal or similar for power, something compact and multi-pole for all the digital and pulse signal wires, and some form of coaxial for the video line.
For VHF, a pair of PL259s and a barrel connector is the norm, though you could probably use something more compact if necessary to fit in above the headlining.
Pete
All modern radars from the main leisure brands are connected using ethernet, so if you can crimp RJ45 plugs (or know someone who can) then you can split and rejoin them fairly easily. I’d suggest ordering an IP-rated coupler to join them with, just in case - even if you don’t have deck leaks, there can be condensation in the kinds of crevices these things get jammed into.
If it’s an older radar with analogue wiring you can still cut and join it if necessary, but it’s quite an involved job and you need to do it well to avoid degrading the signal. You’ll probably end up fanning the cable out into two or three connectors - Superseal or similar for power, something compact and multi-pole for all the digital and pulse signal wires, and some form of coaxial for the video line.
For VHF, a pair of PL259s and a barrel connector is the norm, though you could probably use something more compact if necessary to fit in above the headlining.
Pete