Wayne.B wrote in
:

I have an ICOM M802 and highly recommend it. Nothing else that I've
seen comes close with respect to ease of use. It also works well in
amateur radio mode if you have a license.



Nice radio but has a few deficiencies we found on Lionheart......

Antenna tuner is beautifully sealed....THE DAMNED FOOL CHEAP CABLE
PIGTAIL IS NOT! Open the AT-130 tuner and make a drawing of where the
wires are SOLDERED to the board from the pigtail crap control cable going
out of the sealed case. Unsolder the wires and remove the pigtail with
the chinzy crap connector on the end and discard it. Run the control
cable from the radio through the watertight fitting and solder the wires
directly to the circuit board on the little rings you unsoldered the
other ones paying attention to where they go, of course. Ok, the outside
control cable problem is solved....

Icom makes sure you have EXACTLY the same number to hair-fine tiny pins
to put on the OTHER end of the tuner control cable that push into the
connector to plug into the radio. If you bend or break one of the tiny,
fragile, crappy pins....you're screwed. Be very careful crimping them to
the wires. Notice the pins plug into pins actually on a circuit board
through an unsealed slot in the radio case. Make sure NO STRAIN
WHATSOEVER is put on this connector...or you'll beeee sooorrrryyyyy!

The fan sucks the corrosive sea air into the case to cool the transmitter
heat sink. If any salt whatsoever is present in that air, it will simply
eat and destroy everything inside the expensive radio cabinet. The radio
MUST be mounted in a very dry, spray-free, atmosphere. Ours is behind
the nav station panel just under the cabin overhead, protected. Works
fine there. We use the remote head cable to mount the head in the nav
panel next to the matching M-602 overkill VHF radio my captain just had
to have...(c;

The NMEA connector to get GPS data into the GMDSS/DSC card in the M-802
is a BNC coax connector, one of the stupidest things about the
radio....next to the stupid control cable above. Of course, this grounds
the NMEA (-) data to the -12V power supply "ground" raising the
unbalanced condition of your archaeic NMEA network so the NMEA data RF
noise wipes out the HF receivers in the M-802 because the unbalanced NMEA
makes a great transmitter with its data pulses, especially if you run it
fast. HF works great if you shut down the NMEA gear to stop the noise
intrusion.

You'll need a SECOND HF antenna AWAY from the transmitter antenna,
please, for the GMDSS/DSC scanner to use. I'm using the boat's solid
lifeline which has a handy bolt coming through the deck behind the main
radio to hook the DSC antenna jack to. DC ground is everywhere, so
that's my counterpoise.

Speaking of counterpoise....make sure you have a stainless strap
connecting the ground post on the TUNER, not the radio, to the engine
block or whatever ships ground you have. If you're lucky enough to have
a bolt to the lead keel you can hook it to, that works great!...(c;

Once you get rid of the crap control pigtail connector hanging out of the
tuner, putting the tuner right out in the weatherdeck has no effect on it
at all. The inside of Lionheart's AT130 looks just like the day I
installed it at the base of the mizzenmast where it hooks onto the
screwjack insulated backstay on the Amel Sharki ketch, on top of the aft
cabin just behind the mizzenmast base.

Too bad Raymarine doesn't seal the 2KW radomes like the AT130 so IT
doesn't get eaten on the radar platform 40' above the tuner....nuts.

Signals on both the ham bands and marine bands are first class on the M-
802, considering its longwire antenna, tuner and only 150 watts....