MacGregorSailors.com

For those with a West Marine cataloge (2010) a coax deck cable deck fitting is on page 95. Otherwise, it is a chrome fitting that screws to the deck. It has a rubber seal in the middle that the coax runs thru. A cap then screws down to compress the seal to prevent water from entering thru the hole in the deck. For X owners the mast is hollow. The coax runs thru the mast to the antenna. I use 10" tie wraps every foot or so on the coax. This prevents the coax from slapping the inside of the mast. I'd send pic's but I'm buried under 5' of snow.
capncarp,

Let me know how the ty-rap idea works...Very cool cheap ( and I too like cheap, when it works)
Water proof? I was, at least , referring to the deck mount..
Corrosion? WD 40, ( water dispersal , formula #40) No-Ox, Pentrox ,Super-lube, any silicon dielectric, Corrosion X Orange... spray can at ACE...everyone has an ACE.. Never-Seize as well and it........Never Seizes
So far the rubber doughnut grommets are working fine on my mast.. I have PVC as well, if those fail over time...
For the M's with those styrofoam blocks?? I drove/drilled... the thin walled Plumbers ( very light weight) 1/2" pipe thru the blocks and use it as a chase..

It's chrome and comes with a rubber gasket. No corrosion after 11 years.
capncarp,

we dont see a lot of corrosion in fresh water ... except maybe at and on electrical contact points...

capncarp wrote:It's chrome and comes with a rubber gasket. No corrosion after 11 years.
capncarp,

My Radio is mounted here port side aft berth entrance
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee20 ... 010027.jpg
I used one of these to run my cables thought the P/S aft stern avail @ W/M
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee20 ... 010012.jpg
My 8FT Antenna is mounted on top of my arch so it is fairly high & I am satisfied with it
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab1/ ... 010003.jpg

J

Highlander : Are you making accessible all your photos in one place?

Rich
PhotobucketAlbums = maccutter26m and thehighlander111

J

Highlander wrote:Rich
PhotobucketAlbums = maccutter26m and thehighlander111

J

John, do you still have pictures of your available? Being the owner of a , I wouldn't mind seeing more details of your mods for it.

Thanks,
Henry

I made a provisional installation. I put the antenna on one of the lateral stays, and run the cable over the top of the cabin into the interior cabin to the radio location, wich is on the port side bunkwall next to the switch panel.
The prolem is to install the VHF connectors to each end of the cable. After reading the instructions by me and some others, it look confusing how to attach this connectors.
Finally we made, it but not sure if it is making good contact on both ends, so I'm going to test continuity to know if they are working well.

Hector
PI, TX

It's a bit more than just a continuity check with Radio Frequency stuff Hector

Find a local ham radio operator and they will probably have an RF power meter that will really check that connection. There's no point to having an antenna if there is no radiated power reaching it

I hate to revive old posts, but at least this one is not too old...

Can anyone update what they've done for going thru-deck on the VHF? I see where Russ said he ran the male end out of the cabin thru the deck using the water-tight fitting (I think it was Russ), just leaving the cable hanging there. And I've seen the double-ended-female-coax-connector which the two male ends would connect to, including the idea of using washers on both deck top and cabin sealed up...sounds good.

My boat had one of THESE on the deck, and I liked it (mast has the U-size wire with a male connector hanging out the bottom), but the bottom of this deck fitting is hard-wired, and I removed it to re-wire everything (moved the radio). As part of the re-install, I was hoping for an easier connection...although there is already a five-hole pattern on the deck where this was...


Any thoughts/recommendations? This will (hopefully) be Saturday's project!

I assume this mod is for a mast mounted antenna, not a rail or deck mount?

K9Kampers wrote:I assume this mod is for a mast mounted antenna, not a rail or deck mount?

Because mast mounted antennas are faster like blue hulls.

Wish I'd noticed this post a little earlier. I just finished my mast top installation and squared everything away when I saw the brilliant 'pipe wrap' solution. Like so many others I had to fight the mast foam monster, to run the cables down to, and past, the winch attachment bolt. I'm hoping the remaining empty space down to deck level isn't enough to reveal mast 'slap'. If so I'll do this for sure the next time I open it up.
I started off trying 1" pvc and was getting nowhere fast until I swapped to 3/4 thin copper pipe with thin joints and a sawtooth end. Still only went 4" at a time, but much less hassle!
The antenna is a quarter wave type (I think) swiveling on my windex, which is supposed to radiate a wider pattern to overcome mast heel.

Ross

Yes, a REALLY fast masthead mount...

My cable, a 58U size**, slaps the inside of the mast and sounds like a bell ringing...
Part of Saturday's work, I hope, will be sliding some of that foam insulation up the wire from the bottom...cuz I don't think it will be easy to put tie-wraps on it - have to pull it all the way out, tie-wrap it, put it back in - and that means taking the PL259 connector off one of the ends.

The wiring I ran for the masthead light and anchor light (plus spare) has tie-wraps on it...

I'm leaning toward just re-mounting that deck fitting I have - going to hard-wire the cable to it (which means soldering) so I don't have any additional connectors to deal with.

**Just an FYI- When I was looking for connectors, I was checking the difference between the 58X and 58U size cable, and found several ham radio websites where they talked about it, and in a table it shows that there is a significant difference in loss over a 100-foot run, the U being lower, of course (it is much larger). For a deck or rail mount, this probably doesn't mean much loss, but the 28-foot run up the mast probably does have an impact, and I'm happy that the PO's used the larger size cable for the mast run, even though it is heavier and harder to handle. I am running 58X inside for the radio-to-deck run, but that's less than 10 feet.