On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 14:26:43 GMT, "Glen Wiley Wilson"
wrote:

Interesting. I'd have bet money that would be a flakey setup. You
learn something every day (well you do if you're paying attention.)
If I felt sure that my customers had someone of your expertise aboard,
I might even be comfortable recommending something like that. :-)

What ****es me off is the manufacturers rarely use a BALANCED feed,
i.e. NMEA + and NMEA - like it calls for. Much cheaper to unbalance
it. The stupid Icom M802 HF-SSB NMEA data input is a GROUNDED BNC RF
connector! That's crazy! Nothing like feeding SSB RF straight from
the radio's cabinet into NMEA - to cause havoc. Of course, if you
hook the coax shield of their connector to SCREEN, instead of NMEA -,
there's no data input to the Icom.....dammit. Idiots.

Garmin has + wire and ground
B&G Network output + wire and ground
Yeoman in and out + wire and ground
Icom M602 VHF in and out + wire and ground

Plenty of room for lots of RF intrusion into the NMEA system and it
all radiates like hell into the HF and VHF from all the stupid
unshielded screw terminals, push terminals, plain wires, unshielded
SeaTalk connectors/wires, it all drives the HF-SSB bands crazy jamming
the receiver with its stupid data noises. The boxes aren't shielded,
either. Garmin's plastic case, Raymarines are all in plastic cases,
B&G's are all in plastic, except for the main computer on the Network
Pilot. The data computer inside the display of Pilot is all plastic
you can see through...unshielded, of course.

Noone seems to care if the data instruments radiate into the radios or
are scrambled by the radios as long as profits are maximized. No
organization forces them to conform to any computer ratings like your
home computer.

It's all nuts.......damned NMEA is gutless to change it.



Larry W4CSC

3600 planes with transponders are burning 8-10 million
gallons of kerosene per hour over the USA. R-12 car air
conditioners are responsible for the ozone hole, right?