new radar setup self install ?

tsekul said:
Next Question. Is there anything special about a scan strut post or can you just get one made. I imagine an aly tube and feet would not come to The £850 they are asking ?
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Nothing special about it, except that it's very easy to install and looks good. I reckon a lot of the stainless posts people have made are too thin, and look wrong. The Scanstrut post is chunky and looks right. The ball-joint base makes it very easy to install - no measuring, no "trial fits". And, of course, you can just swivel the post down to get easy access to the radome.
 
tsekul said:
with a strut coming in at about £850 and a mount for the mast £300 might be erring towards a mast mount :p

might be able to use the old mount but doubt it. More thought required on this........
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I found the same-no way!

I made a drawing and a local fabricator knocked up a pole, dome mount and lower bracket for £225.00 in polished 316 S/S.

Thats more like it...................................

PS-I copied the windvane mount already fitted-just went up to 2 inch S/S from 13/4 inch Alloy.
 
Here is a small tip if you are installing a Raymarine digital radar - I learnt this the hard way.

The standard Raymarine radar cable comes with an RJ45 ethernet cable plug. This connects to a Raymarine display via a special and expensive Raymarine "crossover connector", to which the display connects with another RJ45.

This wretched RJ45 plug on the radar cable is nigh-on impossible to get down the mast. You then also have to find a convenient place to mount the bulky "Crossover connector" You then also have to thread another RJ45 plug through below deck conduits to meet up with the Crossover connector. Since the standard cables all come in 5m, 10m, or 15m lengths, you are probably going to have a lot of cable slack which then needs to be bundled up somewhere in the boat. All this is a bloody nightmare - it took me three or four days of cursing to get this all connected up - then I found that the radar did not work because I had damaged the RJ45 connector in trying to get it down the mast.

After a lot of swearing at Raymarine, I did some severe Googling and discovered that there is nothing magical about ethernet cables and RJ45 cross-over splices. I realised it is far easier just to chop off the Raymarine RJ45 plugs and throw away the expensive mysterious "Crossover Connector", and just directly cross-splice the ethernet cables. There is plenty of information on the internet on how to do this. You can then cut the cables to a convenient length to meet at a convenient point to disconnect the radar if you need to dismast, and you no longer need to find a place to hide coils of slack cable. Also, less voltage drop with shorter cables and a direct soldered splice.
 
davidej said:
When we self-installed our radar we used a ladder on the mast. climbed up it and dangled a screw or nut (can't remember which) down the hole tied onto Marlow whipping twine. When it reached the bottom we poked around with a bit of bent wire to find the twine and pull out thru the exit hole. The cable can then be pulled through using the twine as a mouse.

Not difficult.
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When your wife is out take the bath chain from the house and whip it to the mouse line. heel the boat a little so it runs down the side of the mast with the entry hold and hence keeps clear of the other stuff in the mast. I have not read the whole thread to see if others have suggested this!
 
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