So this is weird. I can receive just fine, and I can transmit when the motor is off. If the motor is running I can still receive, but attempting to transmit causes one of two things to happen:
Either its all static.
The radio powers down and resets.
I’m not sure where to start here, the accessories and the motor are two completely different systems, the only place they might ‘touch’ are at the battery. I’m guessing its some kind of voltage drop?
Ideas? Its a Standard Horizon GX2200 if that matters.
you most likely have corrosion on one or both of the power connections. Mine did the same thing last year, i couldnt transmit in high if i had all my electronics on. I rewired it all the way to the junction board and has been fine ever since. if you can, try putting a volt meter on the power cords near the unit, read the voltage at rest with the unit on, then try to transmit and see how bad the voltage drops. if it drops more than a volt or so, you have a bad connection.
If I’m posting, its because I’m sitting here at work, dreaming about fishing.
also, you can try revving the motor up in neutral to increase the battery voltage. if it works fine when you do that, its also a good indication you have a bad connection.
If I’m posting, its because I’m sitting here at work, dreaming about fishing.
Sounds like a plan, I might be taking the boat out tonight to cruise/get some bait so I can try the revving thing then. This all feels very familiar for some reason.
So to clarify, when the vhf is set to 25 w, you have 12vdc at the battery and 10vdc at the switch that powers the VHF? Is there ever 12vdc at the switch?
You probably need to remove power, then disconnect that power cable and test for resistance. It sounds like corrosion in the cable itself or one of the connectors although it’s a little hard for me to follow this conversation. Corrosion is resistance. Resistance, by definition, is the opposition of current flow. Not enough juice and it makes sense the unit would shut off.
V=IR. Voltage equals current times resistance. This is ohms law. Learn this logic and it’ll help you tremendously in troubleshooting any boat power issue.
In a power cable from end to end, you want zero resistance in a perfect cable. Measure positive lead to positive end to end, negative lead to negative. You should have OPEN when you test positive to negative.
You need to be able to operate that VHF in 25 Watts. 1 watt won’t get you much distance at all. 25 Watts gets you around 30 miles on a good day assuming a decent antenna.
If that doesn’t solve your problem you need to check for corrosion in your RF cables next. Those connections can go bad over time too with salt spray. Easy fix, PL-259 connector. West Marine or radio shack type places certainly would have them. If you find this is the issue and can’t figure out how to install this connector, give me a shout and I’ll come help you out.
Yeah, that’s what i figured would be your outcome. Like 23 said, you have a bad connection some where between the VHF and the battery. if there an inline fuse for the VHF? that’s usually a common place for corrosion to get. people install regular automotive style inline fuses and theyre not sealed, so naturally they rust and corrode easily. Other than that, youll have to run a resistance test on each leg of the wiring, like 23 said.
If I’m posting, its because I’m sitting here at work, dreaming about fishing.
I get the standard 12.7v at the switch when I’m NOT transmitting. It’ll drop to like ~12.4v or so when transmitting at 1w power. I cleaned up the battery terminals and the cables and now I can transmit in 25w but I still get a sizable voltage drop (maybe 1.5w instead of 2), but it doesn’t power off the radio any more.
I have a breaker back in the bilge that I put in line for the accessories circuit like 6 years ago when I replaced all my wiring. It probably needs to be replaced as I noticed some rust/corrosion on the bolt/nut where the power lead comes from the battery kill switch. I kinda need to move it anyway because its in a ***** of a position to reach/see.
I’ll add it to the list, which is constantly growing.
