Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Nav Desk dry fit......

I had two pieces of 1/4" aluminum water-cut to make a frame for the 120v panel and for the front face of the navigation console. The console has four openings that will hold inserts with cutouts for the various instruments, VHF, GPS etc. This will allow for later customization without having to redo the full panel.








This is the original diagram for the 120V Blue Seas 360 panel. Scott McEniry and his team did a great job. The slight change he recommended was to substitute standard analogue gauges so that he could install a selector switch to take readings of either shore power 1 or 2.



Everything gets dismantled soon and the panels go off to be powder coated matte black.

10 comments:

Silverheels III said...

Recommend that you make up a communications only fuse/circuit breaker panel that is fed directly from the house battery with a dedicated run of heavy cable. Keep the panel and it's cables away from other circuits such as reefers, generators and especially inverters. Isolating the power feeds for your VHF, AIS and SSB will keep these noisy systems and the rf interference they produce from distorting your transmissions. Unfortunately, inverter whine is very common, especially on VHF.

The Incredible Hull said...

Excellent idea. I will do that.

Thanks

Gerry

builder said...

Cool. Have you made an SSB choice? And will you be running Pactor for AirMail/SailMail/WinLink?

The Incredible Hull said...

IC-M802, most likely with Pactor.

Silverheels III said...

Winlink is free to licensed ham cruisers while Sailmail costs $$. Get your amateur radio ticket before you leave to be eligible. Also get a restricted maritime radio operator's certificate, there's no examination in the US, we Canadians must take a test. To legally operate your SSB, VHF and radar outside US territories a vessel station licence (paper) is required by international law. To electronically enable the considerable DSC and AIS capabilities of your VHF and SSB transceivers, a nine digit Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) should be procured from FCC. This will place your boat on the international GMDSS database which will be most helpful to you during emergencies at sea. Boat US also issues free MMSI numbers, but these are meant only for vessels plying American waters, and will not be helpful when you take your boat into international waters. We love using VHF DSC...paging our friends privately, automatically exchanging locations, course and speed info while underway. AIS, using a MMSI enabled radio on VHF allows one to identify and call a close-by ship digitally, a call which they cannot legally ignore.

The Incredible Hull said...

Silverheels, excellent info. keep it coming.

Thanks

Gerry

builder said...

If you have bought the pactor modem... I would go with the bluetooth version. I have been running the PTC-IIex with a bluetooth dongle instead of a hardwired serial or usb cable. It dramatically reduces any RFI finding its way to the radio via the serial cable. Just thought I would mention as I have been running the modem a lot in this current trip.

The Incredible Hull said...

Thanks Robert, that purchase is a while away, but I will file the advice.

Thanks

Gerry

Patrick said...

Gerry,

I like Silverheels idea to eliminate wire that picks up stray RF. Bluetooth connectivity. This goes one step further. The SCS in Germany has a Pactor now that fits inside the ICOM 802. no wires.
http://www.scs-ptc.com/news/trxptc/the-trxptc-the-transceiver-integrated-pactor-modem

The Incredible Hull said...

Thanks Patrick, duly noted.

Gerry