Mast wiring

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Highndry

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I'm just about to fit a NASA combination masthead light and VHF aerial to the mast head and wanted some advice on the actual process.

I'm planning to cable-tie the equipment wire and coax together using sets of three cable ties at intervals of around a foot to help them stand off the inside of the mast. However, before I do that, I was wondering if I ought to heat-shrink the two separate lengths of equipment wire (positive and negative) together. Obviously it would look neater where they emerge from the mast foot and enter the Bulgin plug but should I just wrap the visible bits together or is it worth doing the whole length?
 
Do be aware that if you bind the cables together, you're committed to replacing (or at least, extracting and reinserting) both of them if either fails. Somebody taped together lots of the wiring inside conduits in Ariam, and I curse him every time I need to remove just one cable.

Pete
 
When wiring my mast for the radar I did not use any ties to support it and have never noticed any noise from it rattling.

If I were to use ties as a spacer I'd have a larger distance between them; sounds like an awful lot of ties every foot.

I would probably keep the separate instrument wires apart; I'd tape the +/- together every yard or so.
 
BAtoo said:
When wiring my mast for the radar I did not use any ties to support it and have never noticed any noise from it rattling.
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But presumably your radar is only part-way up the mast. I too have the radar cable dangling free (it wouldn't fit in the cable channel) and it doesn't rattle, but I think it would if coming down all the way from the masthead nearly three times higher.

Pete
 
Highndry said:
But it's either that or double up on the number of cable ties. Or have the wires rattling around inside the mast?
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Not very expensive though. 500 for £8 from B&Q and almost every street market has them even cheaper. I endorse what has been said previously - keep them separate so that one can be replaced if necessary. I had to have the mast taken down to replace mine thanks to the arrangement somebody had made at the masthead.
 
True, its at the spreaders so about half way up, and there's the data cable too, but no noise.

I'm sure in the past I've rewired up to the top without channels or ties and heard nothing..
 
vyv_cox said:
Not very expensive though. 500 for £8 from B&Q and almost every street market has them even cheaper. I endorse what has been said previously - keep them separate so that one can be replaced if necessary. I had to have the mast taken down to replace mine thanks to the arrangement somebody had made at the masthead.
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It isn't a money issue ;). I have thousands and thousands of the damn things in my office. I was thinking more of weight and how difficult it would be to pull one set of cable tied wires past another set of cable tied wires.
 
Highndry said:
It isn't a money issue ;). I have thousands and thousands of the damn things in my office. I was thinking more of weight and how difficult it would be to pull one set of cable tied wires past another set of cable tied wires.
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I can't really see either being much of an issue. What do 10 or 12 cable ties weigh? If they do what they are supposed to do and hold the wire centrally in the mast there shouldn't be much of a problem pulling one past the other. Easy to experiment first.
 
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