davidivorwynphillips
Well-Known Member
Looking for a few metres of raymarine analogue radar cable (2kw radar) - has anyone got some tucked away that they might be prepared to sell? Trying to avoid Raymarine horrific prices!
Radar cable
- Thread starter davidivorwynphillips
- Start date
concentrik
Well-Known Member
I avoided horrific prices by using multicore video cable. The type I found had the requisite screened conductors, larger gauge power cores and some spare control cores. The radar worked fine before I extended the cable by 10 metres. It worked fine after, too.
I'm ex-digital audio electronics so I didn't do this from an understanding of the system requirements but I reckoned that although it might not work it wouldn't do any harm - as far as I could tell, it didn't. It certainly didn't seem to alter the performance.
10m Video extension cable: £12. 10m Raymarine extension cable: £much more.
I soldered the inners - no connectors fitted - it doesn't take long and you can do a neat job if you're careful with Helleman sleeve and heatshrink.
I expect I'll learn now that a video extension cable lacks the special properties of a Raymarine extension and perhaps it does. Didn't seem to matter to me though - the tuning worked fine, readout was OK, ranging seemed accurate etc.
davidivorwynphillips
Well-Known Member
Sounds a great idea - is there a particular type of video cable you used? I think the radar cable is 13 core with two coax wires
concentrik
Well-Known Member
It might be worth checking that - 13 cores sounds like too many, I would expect 8 or 9... Does yours have true coaxial cores or are they simply screened or shielded cores? If they are true coaxial (core with polythene type insulating sleeve covered with braided shield) I'm not sure you'll find a substitute. I wouldn't think this is the case since AFAIK all the radar frequency malarky happens in the radome and what comes out is relatively low (MHz) frequencies. Someone will doubtless be along soon to set this straight!
Anyway you'll find the kind of thing I used on eBay like this:
http://goo.gl/O8Zz0j
Anyway you'll find the kind of thing I used on eBay like this:
http://goo.gl/O8Zz0j
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davidivorwynphillips
Well-Known Member
I haven't had mine apart but the manual gives 1 75ohm coax, 3 sets of twisted data wires (azimuth,trigger, data) and larger gauge power cables. The unit is a c80 driving a 2kw radar
concentrik
Well-Known Member
I don't know of a multicore video cable which includes a coaxial core. You could run a separate 75R coax cable alongside (outside) the multicore, then you would only need to find a multi with twisted pairs - readily available off the shelf.
davidivorwynphillips
Well-Known Member
Thanks - really helpful ideas.