Re: [Cal_Boats] Cal25 VHF Antenna

My suspicion is that you will find a coax connection inside the mast, ie: the cable comes up through the center of the maststep and connects to the mast coax inside the mast. Depending on how long the mast has been stepped, you should be able to disconnect the 2 halves of the connector there. However, if the mast has not been unstepped is several years, the connectors may be corroded together, if so...I'd say replace the whole works while the mast is down. There is no legal requirement for any recreational vessel under 65' to carry a VHF, so whether you carry a fixed-mount, a handheld, or nothing is your choice. I would not want to be without at least a handheld though, and the fixed-mount with a masthead antenna is better. Best would be a fixed-mount with handheld backup. Rod Johnson, "SUNBIRD" 1979 O'DAY DS II and former co-owner of "NODROG" 1970 CAL 21 On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:17:31 -0700 (PDT) Whirled Peas <wh… [at] yahoo.com> writes: I had to cut mine and splice in new connectors since the hole in the deck was too small to pass a connector through. It's easy to do, you most likely have coaxial cable... and some of the coaxial connectors are plug and play, but soldering is always best. A handheld radio is nice, not sure if it meets the legal requirement having a fixed radio. Personally- I'd go for both. Also, the handheld radio's are usually only 5w broadcast, where as the fixed radios are something like 25w broadcast I think. So a handheld generally does not have as much range as a fixed radio. From: Chris Martin <no… [at] yahoo.com> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 11:42:22 AM Subject: [Cal_Boats] Cal25 VHF Antenna Hello All I am planning to drop the mast on my Cal25 to replace the beam. I am not sure how to properly disconnect the vhf antenna as there is no connector in the hull. Should I expect to cut the existing wire then figure it out later? The existing cable runs from the radio, through the port bulkhead, along the beam then up through the mast. The hole in the bulkhead is just large enough for the cable, no way the ends could fit through. Is it common place to run the cable then install the ends? This got me thinking about having a fixed radio. I sail on the Chesapeake, I a good hand held sufficient or so I need a proper fixed radio? If I go the fixed route, what is the recommended method to pass the cable through the deck? Thanks for the advice! Chris Compete with the big boys. Click here to find products to benefit your business. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTI97xEHniqv74VBnjHCPrtySsAZFa2uCiTPZP9aRdjdYQu9rmWmcQ/

I have no idea how we could possibly have this kind of luck.......but on NODROG we never had a problem with the VHF coax or the steaming light wire banging around in the mast. We installed a steaming light in about 1981, VHF in 1993. We installed the VHF antenna at the masthead, drilled a hole just below the mounting bracket for the coax, and threaded the cable down the mast, drilled another hole near the butt end of the mast and I soldered on a connector (CAL 21 has deck-stepped mast, nearly identical to CAL 20) I took no special action to keep it from banging.....and it never did. Sure wish I knew what I did to get that result! When we added the steaming light just above the spreaders we drilled a hole in the leading edge of the mast, fed the wire (18 AWG marine duplex) down the mast, drilled a hole near the butt of the mast and soldered on a connector after feeding wire through a rubber grommet. Same story as the later added VHF, never a clang.....silence.....again, I sure wish I knew what I did to get that result! Just so no one thinks that I'm blessed or something......I once added a masthead tricolor nav-light to one of my sailboats (I won't say how big or small, to prevent laughter!) and the wire banged and clanged incessantly! Now, why 25' + of coax, and 13' +/- of steaming light wire never banged around inside our CAL 21's mast....yet 11' of wire in my other sailboat wouldn't STOP banging around......is one heck of a mystery! Rod Johnson, "SUNBIRD" 1979 O'DAY DS II and former co-owner of "NODROG" 1970 CAL 21 #285 PS: OK, the sailboat with the noisy mast wire was my little 9' Trimaran, a real boat....not a model! Mast was a typical aluminum teardrop-shape extrusion,wire was installed just as the coax was on NODROG. On Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:03:01 -0700 (PDT) Lord Nougat <lo… [at] yahoo.com> wrote How do you guys keep that antenna wire from banging around inside the mast? Some PO of our little boat installed a vhf antenna at the masthead, which was probably pretty cool, but when we got the boat there was just a few inches of frayed coaxial hanging down that was being used creatively to hold decorations, and every time the boat moves, the remaining wire inside the mast bangs around in there. I hate that - I keep my halyards off the mast religiously, but am still a little noisy, and I'm sure that wires banging into the mast from the inside can't be healthy either. I'm pretty sure I'm going to just remove the antenna altogether when we get around to lowering the mast and replace it with the masthead light we should have up there [which will still need at least one wire]. Can't pay your bills? Click here to learn about filing for bankruptcy. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTLjhaB5CswGTwMG8SvVPyKtlu5BX6HXBz98wNMfZw8d7FsNlXmxaQ/

Banging wires can be anoying, to be sure, but isn't anyone concerened with chafe? If the wire chafes and lays against the mast which is grounded to the rest of the through-hulls I think you have a situation that makes your underwater fittings disapear. Al, Paul, Patrick: you guys seem knowledgeable about this stuff, can this be a problem? Regards, Wayne From: Rodney G Johnson <rj… [at] juno.com> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 4:45:29 PM Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Cal25 VHF Antenna I have no idea how we could possibly have this kind of luck.......but on NODROG we never had a problem with the VHF coax or the steaming light wire banging around in the mast. We installed a steaming light in about 1981, VHF in 1993. We installed the VHF antenna at the masthead, drilled a hole just below the mounting bracket for the coax, and threaded the cable down the mast, drilled another hole near the butt end of the mast and I soldered on a connector (CAL 21 has deck-stepped mast, nearly identical to CAL 20) I took no special action to keep it from banging..... and it never did. Sure wish I knew what I did to get that result! When we added the steaming light just above the spreaders we drilled a hole in the leading edge of the mast, fed the wire (18 AWG marine duplex) down the mast, drilled a hole near the butt of the mast and soldered on a connector after feeding wire through a rubber grommet. Same story as the later added VHF, never a clang.....silence. ....again, I sure wish I knew what I did to get that result! Just so no one thinks that I'm blessed or something... ...I once added a masthead tricolor nav-light to one of my sailboats (I won't say how big or small, to prevent laughter!) and the wire banged and clanged incessantly! Now, why 25' + of coax, and 13' +/- of steaming light wire never banged around inside our CAL 21's mast....yet 11' of wire in my other sailboat wouldn't STOP banging around...... is one heck of a mystery! Rod Johnson, "SUNBIRD" 1979 O'DAY DS II and former co-owner of "NODROG" 1970 CAL 21 #285 PS: OK, the sailboat with the noisy mast wire was my little 9' Trimaran, a real boat....not a model! Mast was a typical aluminum teardrop-shape extrusion,wire was installed just as the coax was on NODROG. On Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:03:01 -0700 (PDT) Lord Nougat <lord_nougat@ yahoo.com> wrote How do you guys keep that antenna wire from banging around inside the mast? Some PO of our little boat installed a vhf antenna at the masthead, which was probably pretty cool, but when we got the boat there was just a few inches of frayed coaxial hanging down that was being used creatively to hold decorations, and every time the boat moves, the remaining wire inside the mast bangs around in there. I hate that - I keep my halyards off the mast religiously, but am still a little noisy, and I'm sure that wires banging into the mast from the inside can't be healthy either. I'm pretty sure I'm going to just remove the antenna altogether when we get around to lowering the mast and replace it with the masthead light we should have up there [which will still need at least one wire]. ____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ___ Can't pay your bills? Click here to learn about filing for bankruptcy.

bird and wasp nests To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com From: rj… [at] juno.com Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:45:29 -0400 Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Cal25 VHF Antenna I have no idea how we could possibly have this kind of luck.......but on NODROG we never had a problem with the VHF coax or the steaming light wire banging around in the mast. We installed a steaming light in about 1981, VHF in 1993. We installed the VHF antenna at the masthead, drilled a hole just below the mounting bracket for the coax, and threaded the cable down the mast, drilled another hole near the butt end of the mast and I soldered on a connector (CAL 21 has deck-stepped mast, nearly identical to CAL 20) I took no special action to keep it from banging.....and it never did. Sure wish I knew what I did to get that result! When we added the steaming light just above the spreaders we drilled a hole in the leading edge of the mast, fed the wire (18 AWG marine duplex) down the mast, drilled a hole near the butt of the mast and soldered on a connector after feeding wire through a rubber grommet. Same story as the later added VHF, never a clang.....silence.....again, I sure wish I knew what I did to get that result! Just so no one thinks that I'm blessed or something......I once added a masthead tricolor nav-light to one of my sailboats (I won't say how big or small, to prevent laughter!) and the wire banged and clanged incessantly! Now, why 25' + of coax, and 13' +/- of steaming light wire never banged around inside our CAL 21's mast....yet 11' of wire in my other sailboat wouldn't STOP banging around......is one heck of a mystery! Rod Johnson, "SUNBIRD" 1979 O'DAY DS II and former co-owner of "NODROG" 1970 CAL 21 #285 PS: OK, the sailboat with the noisy mast wire was my little 9' Trimaran, a real boat....not a model! Mast was a typical aluminum teardrop-shape extrusion,wire was installed just as the coax was on NODROG. On Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:03:01 -0700 (PDT) Lord Nougat <lo… [at] yahoo.com> wrote How do you guys keep that antenna wire from banging around inside the mast? Some PO of our little boat installed a vhf antenna at the masthead, which was probably pretty cool, but when we got the boat there was just a few inches of frayed coaxial hanging down that was being used creatively to hold decorations, and every time the boat moves, the remaining wire inside the mast bangs around in there. I hate that - I keep my halyards off the mast religiously, but am still a little noisy, and I'm sure that wires banging into the mast from the inside can't be healthy either. I'm pretty sure I'm going to just remove the antenna altogether when we get around to lowering the mast and replace it with the masthead light we should have up there [which will still need at least one wire]. Can't pay your bills? Click here to learn about filing for bankruptcy.

No nests, mast was stored inside every Winter. I can tell you there were never any nests! We were just incredibly lucky? Rod Johnson On Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:50:30 -0600 r good <my… [at] hotmail.com> writes: bird and wasp nests To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com From: rj… [at] juno.com Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:45:29 -0400 Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Cal25 VHF Antenna I have no idea how we could possibly have this kind of luck.......but on NODROG we never had a problem with the VHF coax or the steaming light wire banging around in the mast. We installed a steaming light in about 1981, VHF in 1993. We installed the VHF antenna at the masthead, drilled a hole just below the mounting bracket for the coax, and threaded the cable down the mast, drilled another hole near the butt end of the mast and I soldered on a connector (CAL 21 has deck-stepped mast, nearly identical to CAL 20) I took no special action to keep it from banging.....and it never did. Sure wish I knew what I did to get that result! When we added the steaming light just above the spreaders we drilled a hole in the leading edge of the mast, fed the wire (18 AWG marine duplex) down the mast, drilled a hole near the butt of the mast and soldered on a connector after feeding wire through a rubber grommet. Same story as the later added VHF, never a clang.....silence.....again, I sure wish I knew what I did to get that result! Just so no one thinks that I'm blessed or something......I once added a masthead tricolor nav-light to one of my sailboats (I won't say how big or small, to prevent laughter!) and the wire banged and clanged incessantly! Now, why 25' + of coax, and 13' +/- of steaming light wire never banged around inside our CAL 21's mast....yet 11' of wire in my other sailboat wouldn't STOP banging around......is one heck of a mystery! Rod Johnson, "SUNBIRD" 1979 O'DAY DS II and former co-owner of "NODROG" 1970 CAL 21 #285 PS: OK, the sailboat with the noisy mast wire was my little 9' Trimaran, a real boat....not a model! Mast was a typical aluminum teardrop-shape extrusion,wire was installed just as the coax was on NODROG. On Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:03:01 -0700 (PDT) Lord Nougat <lo… [at] yahoo.com> wrote How do you guys keep that antenna wire from banging around inside the mast? Some PO of our little boat installed a vhf antenna at the masthead, which was probably pretty cool, but when we got the boat there was just a few inches of frayed coaxial hanging down that was being used creatively to hold decorations, and every time the boat moves, the remaining wire inside the mast bangs around in there. I hate that - I keep my halyards off the mast religiously, but am still a little noisy, and I'm sure that wires banging into the mast from the inside can't be healthy either. I'm pretty sure I'm going to just remove the antenna altogether when we get around to lowering the mast and replace it with the masthead light we should have up there [which will still need at least one wire]. Can't pay your bills? Click here to learn about filing for bankruptcy. Click to get high quality postcards printed fast and easy. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTLxSUH7UwGhtn5GfxqWQHVjZRQeBENwngDX7vYh8mQ7JazuV3iZDi/

Nope, no nests, mast was stored inside every Winter. I can tell you there were never any nests! We were just incredibly lucky? Rod Johnson On Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:50:30 -0600 r good <my… [at] hotmail.com> writes: bird and wasp nests To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com From: rj… [at] juno.com Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:45:29 -0400 Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Cal25 VHF Antenna I have no idea how we could possibly have this kind of luck.......but on NODROG we never had a problem with the VHF coax or the steaming light wire banging around in the mast. We installed a steaming light in about 1981, VHF in 1993. We installed the VHF antenna at the masthead, drilled a hole just below the mounting bracket for the coax, and threaded the cable down the mast, drilled another hole near the butt end of the mast and I soldered on a connector (CAL 21 has deck-stepped mast, nearly identical to CAL 20) I took no special action to keep it from banging.....and it never did. Sure wish I knew what I did to get that result! When we added the steaming light just above the spreaders we drilled a hole in the leading edge of the mast, fed the wire (18 AWG marine duplex) down the mast, drilled a hole near the butt of the mast and soldered on a connector after feeding wire through a rubber grommet. Same story as the later added VHF, never a clang.....silence.....again, I sure wish I knew what I did to get that result! Just so no one thinks that I'm blessed or something......I once added a masthead tricolor nav-light to one of my sailboats (I won't say how big or small, to prevent laughter!) and the wire banged and clanged incessantly! Now, why 25' + of coax, and 13' +/- of steaming light wire never banged around inside our CAL 21's mast....yet 11' of wire in my other sailboat wouldn't STOP banging around......is one heck of a mystery! Rod Johnson, "SUNBIRD" 1979 O'DAY DS II and former co-owner of "NODROG" 1970 CAL 21 #285 PS: OK, the sailboat with the noisy mast wire was my little 9' Trimaran, a real boat....not a model! Mast was a typical aluminum teardrop-shape extrusion,wire was installed just as the coax was on NODROG. Get a life insurance quote online. Click to compare rates and save. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTQcxIhw0CCM7iC2ZghKJSqKmHUGEQg6kC6QbKsOgIav7YOhCg8Gsg/

Wayne Gillikin wrote: > > > Banging wires can be anoying, to be sure, but isn't anyone concerened > with chafe? If the wire chafes and lays against the mast which is > grounded to the rest of the through-hulls I think you have a situation > that makes your underwater fittings disapear. The corrosion problem mostly arises from shore power problems, when you're connected to improperly wired marina systems or to other boats that are miswired via the shore power. If your 12 VDC lighting wire chafes through, you'll probably pop a circuit breaker or burn up a fuse on your 12 V panel. One problem that nobody has addressed is supporting the wires in their vertical run. As I understand it, copper electrical wiring does not have the tensile strength to support itself in very long vertical runs. It will start to stretch and as it does it gets thinner (smaller wire gauge, higher resistance). Some sort of support is advisable. I'll bet there are standards for that for various sizes and forms of wire (stranded, single-strand). Chris Campbell

The attached is, in part, page 144 of The Marine Electrical and Electronics Bible by John C. Payne (available online or at your local book store). I think he is talking about what might happen if a wire chaffed in the mast. From: Chris Campbell <cl… [at] charterinternet.com> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 9:48:08 AM Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Cal25 VHF Antenna Wayne Gillikin wrote: Banging wires can be anoying, to be sure, but isn't anyone concerened with chafe? If the wire chafes and lays against the mast which is grounded to the rest of the through-hulls I think you have a situation that makes your underwater fittings disapear. The corrosion problem mostly arises from shore power problems, when you're connected to improperly wired marina systems or to other boats that are miswired via the shore power. If your 12 VDC lighting wire chafes through, you'll probably pop a circuit breaker or burn up a fuse on your 12 V panel. One problem that nobody has addressed is supporting the wires in their vertical run. As I understand it, copper electrical wiring does not have the tensile strength to support itself in very long vertical runs. It will start to stretch and as it does it gets thinner (smaller wire gauge, higher resistance). Some sort of support is advisable. I'll bet there are standards for that for various sizes and forms of wire (stranded, single-strand) . Chris Campbell

On one of my cals, the radio wire exits the mast an inch from the bottom through a nice grommet at the forward edge, then goes under the foredeck deck hatch through a notch cut into the teak hatch coming. The beam has NO HOLES drilled through it and is solid w/ a nice arc. The beam is original to the boat. Something to consider before drilling a bunch of holes through your beam to let water back in, which will find its way in! To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com From: rj… [at] juno.com Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:06:01 -0400 Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Cal25 VHF Antenna I had to cut mine and splice in new connectors since the hole in the deck was too small to pass a connector through. It's easy to do, you most likely have coaxial cable... and some of the coaxial connectors are plug and play, but soldering is always best. A handheld radio is nice, not sure if it meets the legal requirement having a fixed radio. Personally- I'd go for both. Also, the handheld radio's are usually only 5w broadcast, where as the fixed radios are something like 25w broadcast I think. So a handheld generally does not have as much range as a fixed radio. From: Chris Martin <no… [at] yahoo.com> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 11:42:22 AM Subject: [Cal_Boats] Cal25 VHF Antenna Hello All I am planning to drop the mast on my Cal25 to replace the beam. I am not sure how to properly disconnect the vhf antenna as there is no connector in the hull. Should I expect to cut the existing wire then figure it out later? The existing cable runs from the radio, through the port bulkhead, along the beam then up through the mast. The hole in the bulkhead is just large enough for the cable, no way the ends could fit through. Is it common place to run the cable then install the ends? This got me thinking about having a fixed radio. I sail on the Chesapeake, I a good hand held sufficient or so I need a proper fixed radio? If I go the fixed route, what is the recommended method to pass the cable through the deck? Thanks for the advice! Chris Compete with the big boys. Click here to find products to benefit your business. Hotmail® has ever-growing storage! Don’t worry about storage limits. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Storage1_052009