On Aug 26, 6:59 pm, "Lew Hodgett" wrote:
"terry" wrote:
I was trying not to get into a discussion about the mast lights
themselves.

There really is no discussion.

You have AquaSignal and those that when they grow up want to be AquaSignal.

They meet the COLREGS.

Typical German products, they do it right.

Consider an alternate lamp for tri-color ONLY if approved to meet COLREGS,
otherwise forget it.

As far as an anchor light is concerned, don't like top of mast location.

Much prefer having anchor light hang about 10 ft above deck using forestay
and jib halyard.

Take it down and store it at daylight.

At least when the drunks come back from a night on the town, they have a
better chance of seeing a light at lower level.

Since you are adding switches, use 3PDT for "sailing" and "steaming".

Cross interlock such that: (+)---(NCsteaming)---(NOsailing)---(Tri-Color
Lamp)---(-).

Cross interlock such that: (+)---(NCsailing)---(NOsteaming)---(Steaming
Lamps)---(-).

3rd circuit has NOsailing in parallel with NOsteaming to power
instrument back lights.

The above insures that only one set of lamps can be on at one time.

Settles any legal issues before they can develop.

As far as mast wiring, hang a 7 ( #14 AWG) conductor bunch lashed to a 1/16"
S/S messenger cable inside mast.

This will prevent cable stretch, and provide spares if req'd in the future.

RG58 is for the CB radio crowd, you want the big stuff, agained lashed to a
1/16" S/S cable to prevent cable stretch and resultant change in impedance
which would then require retuning antenna.

BTW, Carling will have switches needed.

Have fun.

Lew

Thanks Lew. Yes the RG58 wil have a loss of about 3 Db along the
approx 50 feet from VHF to the mast head. That's half the RF power;
the unit btw has two output settings one watt and 25 watt. There will
also be the same 3 Db loss on receive signal. But RG58 easier to run
etc. Also while I haven't looked it up the RG8 will also have some
loss, say one Db? So the extra difficulty and cost of RG8 is
justified; as compared to putting the VHF whip much lower down on the
boat etc. don't think it's major concern.

The CB of course is relatively low power, 3 to 5 watts. And at a lower
frequency (27 megs.). So the loss on the few feet to its taffrail
mount whip will be lower.

Yes we toyed with idea of multi pole / multi throw switches but opted
for simplicity. If/when sailing or motoring at night one is going to
check light by glancing up. This being a very non congested area and
since our white all around anchor IS the top part of the trilight
assembly I think we will leave it that way.

Question: We have a strobe which can be mounted on top of the
aforementioned trilight/anchor light assembly to be on its own
separate switch and used rarely if ever.

Thanks for tip about running wires inside mast on a messenger.

Terry