"Cired" wrote in
lkaboutelectronicequipm
ent.com:

Is there any advantages/disadvantages of placing the inline fuse
closer to the battery or closer to the radio in a direct wire to the
battery installation?. Thanks

EVERY wire in the boat needs to be protected at the SOURCE, not the load!

Unfortunately, the primary power system, in most boats, has no protection
at all from loading and shorts beyond the wire's and battery's capacity to
provide. So, a primary short causes the wires to catch fire or the battery
bank(s) to explode as the electrolyte boils into steam.

You'll find "Lionheart's" primary fuses located between the 6V golf cart
batteries in each bank of 700AH. Her original primary power wiring and her
battery capacity to produce power without boiling electrolyte is fused at a
safe 150A, about the peak current it takes to crank the Perkins 4-108 on a
cold day. She'll be dark, but safe and afloat. Her starting battery, a
high-current regular starting battery is also fused at the battery terminal
at 150A. Large fuses are all "slow blow" taking some time to melt such
large elements. Works great.

As to your directly connected radio, the radio is fused at the radio,
probably in some cheap inline fuse out of a CB radio. Icom is. This fuse
should be increased to one that won't blow (no sense blowing two fuses) and
the proper fuse for the capacity of the wire and about 150% over normal
radio drain at full power should be located on a fuse block mounted right
on the battery box or on the bulkhead next to it....so the wire won't burn.

Larry

Let's short your starter hot terminal to ground and see if the boat
survives. Let's short your ALTERNATOR battery terminal to ground to see
what happens if it survives test 1.