Previously, I spent a few hours in the berkeley workyard replacing the coax connectors on the old coax, while the mast was on the ground. Well it figures that as soon as we put the mast in the boat, I notice that the old coax is completely snapped (dielectric was brittle) right at the exit hole of the mast. So we ended up replacing it after all. We bought RG-213 from Svendsen’s, which is now the replacement for RG-8U. (internet research told me that the RG-8U is an old designation no longer made, and that the RG-213 is for all intensive purposes identical). The RG-213 is thicker and higher quality than the standard RG-58x.
It was less enjoyable doing the work while hanging in the bosun’s chair at the top of the mast than when the mast was on the ground.
This time, instead of making a power-sucking butt connection in the bilge, I just ran the coax all the way back to the radio, so it’s unbroken from masthead to the radio. The next time the mast is pulled, all the bilge wires will need to be snipped and then reconnected. I deemed it more prudent to make permanent, waterproof connections (with adhesive-lined heat shrink) than to leave connectors down in the wet environment of the bilge. Now, even if the bilge fills with water our VHF and trilight should continue to function.
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