mast wire exit hole

[mdidomenico]

i'm finishing up the rebuild of my mast.  i've added a larger vhf cable and some additional wires for lights.  but now the exit hole is not large enough to accommodate all the wires.  before i go drilling another or enlarging the existing hole.  i figured i'd see what others have done.  i'm curious if people have multiple holes, a larger hole, and where said holes might be.

currently i have ~1/2" hole in the front rounded portion of the mast.  i don't know whether it's wise/safe or not to drill another 1/2" hole next to/above the existing hole making it oval or move over a ways and drill a second hole.  i need to fit (4) 12awg wires, (3) 14awg wires, (1) wind sensor, (1) rg213 cable through the base somehow

[Noah]

The number or size of holes doesn't really matter (within reason). Just make sure you use a properly sized cable/wiring gland at each penetration
.

[waughoo]

I just replaced my VHF cable with LMR-400 (it was rg-59!!! So tiny) and I did a large oval hole so i could do a drip loop.  The wire comes up the conduit, over the mast head bolt and then down again with a large radius loop back up to the antenna. 

[mdidomenico]

thanks, wrong end of the mast though :)  i'm talking about the bottom near the mast step.  (i'm keel stepped)

[Noah]

Ah... here are some pics of the other end when I was re-stepping after painting and rewiring the mast. Lots of wires (electronics, etc.) exiting on both sides of mast. I had to slightly shave bottom of floor board to make a smooth no chafe exit under floor. Sorry pics are old. Red tape was to stop deck turnbuckle padeye fromgetting lost/sliding off before I reconnected to turnbuckle at inside of coachroof.

[KWKloeber]

There's no problems, structural wise, enlarging the hole to an oval, or with placing an addition one nearby.  Vanilla or Chocolate,   YBYC (not meant in the usual derogatory tone.) 

[waughoo]

I went with a larger hole at the forward end of the mast for my stack of wires.  There was wone there already, but i drilled with a hole saw a larger one that overlapped the existing one and made that whole thing into a rounded triangle hole.  I left the bottom of the extrusion in tact to make sure the loads were transferred to the step.  As Noah said, a small amount of relief was necessary in the floor boards to provide a clear path for the wires.

[waughoo]

Photos of before and after for reference

[waughoo]

Before the bigger hole

[mdidomenico]

thanks all.  mine has the little hole as shown in post #8 right now.  looks like it shouldn't be an issue enlarging.  my floor boards need to be redone so whatever i end up putting back i'll make sure the wires clear.

as a after thought, what have people done about the bridge connections at the bottom of the mast.  i was going to get a small waterproof outdoor electrical box.  like the gray ones they sell at lowes/home depot and put the wires inside.  i'm sure there's eight thousand and one ways to do this, just curious what others have done

[waughoo]

I used deutsch connecters for all my mast power connections.  The radar wire will also get a deutsch connector but I javent done it yet.  The wind transducer uses a small waterproof barrel connector I found at an electronics shop.

[Ron Hill]

Guys : When I added the TV cable I just drill a new hole in the inside of the mast and brought it thru that way.  I protected that cable with a rubber/plastic grommet around the hole - that's important!!

I connected that wire from the antenna to an A/B switch.  That way all of the signal went to either the TV "A" position or FM "B" position. 

A thought