On Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:53:52 -0500, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

Hi, y'all,

I've been active on the cruiser's net here in Abaco, and this morning one of
the neighboring boats with a radio and antenna guru aboard called me after
to say that after about a minute of continuous transmission I got faint,
though still very clear. Another station chimed into the conversation to
say they had the same result. The original boat is right next to me, so
distance or atmospheric stuff was not a factor

If the volume drops, but the signal remains clear ("full quieting"),
then the problem is in the radio - in the microphone amplifier or
modulator. An antenna or coax problem would result in reduced signal
strength, which would cause the received signal to become noisy, but
would not affect the volume.


My antenna feed for the current installation runs in our bilge, and our
rudder post is currently in need of repacking, sending a constant stream of
water down the bilge/limberholes, where I expect there's at least one
connection. While that and any other connex are professionally done, I
expect some water COULD have penetrated. I'll have a look at that, first,
but would appreciate experienced input.

As another poster said, running cables in the bilge is a Seriously Bad
Idea. Although the reported problem doesn't implicate the cable, I'd
still like to get the cable out of the bilge, and well clear of any
possibility of continuous contact with water.



--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca