raymarine antenna

marchhare

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I replaced a 120 with a 125 a couple of years ago because I was getting very long response time to get a fix at the chartplotter or nor getting a fix at all. Thought the cost of the 125 was very high but advice on the Raymarine site was to change for 125.
On taking out the old 120, after having cut wires to use as a mouse for new cable, evntually found cause of original fault where the co-ax had been joined. It was hidden in a cable pipe, crudly joined the wires together and unit worked perfectly ok. However having boughgt the 125 decided to go ahead based on the fact that accuracy would be improved with the 125.
Problems with fit out were being ignorant of the fact that the 125 was an active GPS aerial, not passive as the 120, which caused me much confusion with the "old" GPS still configured. I configured the 125 for Seatalk and linked into the Course Computer, NMEA is an alternative from the 125 but then you will need a power source. Having disconnected the "old" GPS then managed to get a fix on the chartplotter and has been excellent ever since, however the "old" GPS also fed NMEA to the Navtex and DCS Radio. I then had to find an alternative NMEA feed for these devices.
So not quite as simple replacement as first thought, depends upon your instrument configuration but there may be other issues to resolve!
 

youen

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Can you tell me how was the antenna cable of your old 120 antenna, was it only a coaxial or something like a Seatalk wire with the 3 leads?.Because I find in the locker a cut coaxial and wonder if the antenna has not been already changed.Thanks
 

marchhare

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The 120 has a simple co-ax, the 125 will be multi-core, not sure from memory how many wires but are colour coded for configuration of either Seatalk or NMEA connections. The latest 125 has a small light on the top surface which when active displays a different light to signify searching, fix, and I think Seatalk or NMEA, don't have the unit or instruction to hand so not sure, Raymaine website product info should give you this I would think.
 

pvb

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Problems with fit out were being ignorant of the fact that the 125 was an active GPS aerial, not passive as the 120, which caused me much confusion with the "old" GPS still configured. I configured the 125 for Seatalk and linked into the Course Computer, NMEA is an alternative from the 125 but then you will need a power source. Having disconnected the "old" GPS then managed to get a fix on the chartplotter and has been excellent ever since, however the "old" GPS also fed NMEA to the Navtex and DCS Radio. I then had to find an alternative NMEA feed for these devices.
So not quite as simple replacement as first thought, depends upon your instrument configuration but there may be other issues to resolve!

The 120 has a simple co-ax, the 125 will be multi-core, not sure from memory how many wires but are colour coded for configuration of either Seatalk or NMEA connections. The latest 125 has a small light on the top surface which when active displays a different light to signify searching, fix, and I think Seatalk or NMEA, don't have the unit or instruction to hand so not sure, Raymaine website product info should give you this I would think.

I have to point out that you are totally confusing Youen with incorrect information. The Raystar 120 is not a passive antenna, it's an active receiver like the 125. The 120 does not use coax, it has a 4-core screened cable like the 125. It's a very easy job to replace a 120 with a 125.
 

pvb

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Stand corrected then, not sure what my original Raytheon mushroom shaped, passive looks like a 120 was. Apologies to OP.

Yours was probably the old E35009 active antenna, which used coax lead, and was supplied with early Raynav and Raychart products.
 
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