VHF - RAM microphone installation.

[chuck53]

OK, I just got a new ICOM VHF radio with a RAM microphone.  Are there any easy ways I'm not seeing to run the RAM cable from the Nav station aft near the wheel?

[scotty]

I also have an '87.  On my boat there is a wire bundle port side, behind the trim piece, way back in the outboard corner.  I was able to pull a wire all the way back to my engine pannel.  I'm looking to get a RCM (CMP23) and when I do that's the route I plan to take.  I'll build a recessed box for the mike.  Good luck.

Scotty

[chuck53]

A recessed box is nice, but I'll only keep the RAM connected in the cockpit when we're actually using the boat.  Otherwise, it will be stored inside.

[Stu Jackson]

Chuck, there sure is, and it's pretty easy.

Look under the top of the cabinet in the head with the mirrored slider doors.  There are tads of wires up there, at least on my boat, behind the teak trim.  Follow them forward and they go into the short cabinet with black doors above the nav station, and to there to the square teak faced box (two sections, above and below the shelf) where the wires come straight down and go into the back of the electrical panel.  When we first got Aquavite, that's one of the first things I did:  removed the screws from that vertical box, for access to the wiring so I could trace and label it all.  The screws are still out and the box holds itself up.

Aft of the head they go through the port locker and into the lazarette.

I ran my stereo cockpit speaker wires that way.  The old Loran was in the storage behind the black doors just forward of the nav station, and its antenna cable (mounted on the stern pulpit) was run through there, too.

Just for Grins & Giggles, you could go down from the electrical panel, underneath the sole to starboard underneath the galley sink, and run it all the way back under the engine.

That's harder.  

I know, that's how I routed my new alternator output to the house bank a few years ago.  

[chuck53]

Thanks Stu.  It may be a couple of weeks before I get to it, but I'll let you know what happens.

[chuck53]

It will probably still be a couple of weeks before I get around to it, but I just discovered the PO had a Loran antenna wire running from the just above the nav station to the aft lazerette.  That will certainly make running my new wire a lot easier....just pull it thru.  I certainly don't need a Loran.

[Ken Juul]

It may not be as easy as you think....most installers go overboard with the number of spot ties they use.  I had over 20  between the electrical panel and the cockpit locker.

[scotty]

Here's an idea you may wish to use.  You can buy a fish steel (I get the fiberglass ones, are they still called a steel?).  Very inexpensive at Home Depot.  I use two of them taped together.  It is a thin (less diameter than a drinking straw), flexible fiberglass pole.  Just feed it through the course of where you want to put your wire/pipe, and tape your wire (or a line) to it.  Just pull it through and go to the next section.  I just ran a wire (two) through it for the windless control, using the same route you're describing (but all the way from the forepeak to the engine guages in the cockpit).  It was really easy to do, and you may find it so also.

[Ron Hill]

Chuck : It's easy to run a cable from the nav station to the rear of the boat.  Most of us had a LORAN and a GPS mounted below at the nav station with the antennas aft!!

You can go under the nav station cabinet, thru the top of the mirrored sliders in the head, thru the port side lazerette to the back of the engine instrument panel.

With that said - I say again that it easier to just mount another VHF radio below the engine insturment panel (see a Mainsheet tech note article in the early C34s) and also have the redundancy of a second VHF receiver. Just put a slider switch on the mast antenna cable for FWD & AFT radios.  

BTW, I quarried ICOM as to why they needed a GPS input for their DSS to function??  I reminded them that all cell phones (by law) have to have a built in GPS for tracking!!  To date I have not received a reply.

A few thoughts

[Steve Marjoram]

I picked up the new Standard Horizon GX1700 in May along with the Ram3 Mic.   This unit has built in GPS and works great.   I removed the Loran was a little tricky with all the tie downs), fished the new wire through the Head, storage locker and installed the Ram just below the Instrument panel.  I had my twelve year old son, go into the locker and tie off the cable 

This installation took only a few hours.

Cheers, Steve

[Sailing Steve]

Hi Steve:

Any chance of a photo of the RAM mic connector location that you used at the instrument panel?  I'm about to do the same thing with my new Standard Horizon GX1700 on my '90 and I'm looking at options.

My pipe dream is to install the RAM mic connector on the trunk of the pedestal, but I'm not sure if there will be enough room given the length/size of the actual connector.  I fished my GPS and autohelm cables inside the pedestal previously, tedious but look nice.

Thanks,
"Another" Steve

[Clay Greene]

Keep in mind that the plug for the ICOM remote microphone is very large on the microphone end and in our case required feeding the wire from the pedestal guard down through the cockpit floor, behind the aft and port panels in the aft cabin, through the space in the head behind the cabinets and into the salon.  The limiting factor was the diameter of the holes in our pedestal guard and the cockpit floor - the plug to connect to the microphone was too large to fit through either hole.  In fact, the smaller connecting plug on the other end of the wire just barely fit through the hole in the cockpit floor and required that all of the other wires be disconnected and removed first.  This will not be an issue for you if you are drilling a new hole elsewhere in the cockpit. 

[Sailing Steve]

Hi Claygr:

The mic end of the RAM cable is quite large on the Standard Horizon as well, and as you've described with the Icom RAM cable, the radio end of Standard Horizon is smaller, but I've yet to check to see if even the small end will fit through the bottom on the pedestal/cockpit floor behind the aft cabin.  If it will, my plan is to remove the compass etc. and lower the whole cable into the pedestal from the the top, then feed the small end out the bottom of the pedestal making its way to the radio.

The length of the mic end jack is probably about 1/2 to 3/4 of the width of the inside diameter of the pedestal, so with the chain/cable controlling the rudder quadrant, it may be just too tight.  I've had the pedestal apart before, a bit messy and a pain in the butt, but do-able.  I like the idea of having the RAM right at the helm, but I suspect there is a good chance I'll have to put it by the instrument panel or some other location.  It sounds like you were successful using the pedestal guard - here's hoping it works for me inside the actual pedestal.

Anyone with suggestions/photos etc. is welcome to comment.

Steve

[Dave Spencer]

Folks,
I have an ICOM Command Mic HM-127 (RAM Mic) set up to work with my ICOM M502 radio.  Last year I had trouble with it in two areas:
1 - I couldn't get the volume to go high enough to hear the speaker in the HM-127 unit.  Cranking up the master volume on the unit inside helped slightly but still not loud enough at the mic and overpoweringly loud inside.  I know I can turn off the internal speaker but I don't want to do that since I often use the radio when inside the cabin
2 - I get terrible interference on the remote mic when the fridge is running.  I have no problems at all working with the main unit when the fridge is on.

I noticed the extension cable plug was cracked at the Mic end so I bought a new cable and tried it out without permanently installing the routing.  No change in performance. 
I understand a ferrite might help the RF interference.  I don't know how to size one (or even where to get one) for this application. 
Does anyone have any thoughts on either of these issues?  I'm fairly handy at mechanical items (including wiring) but RF issues baffle me.  Any and all thoughts appreciated.

[Momentum M]

Here's a link to Ram installation and you'll see the installation on my boat...it's in the instrument box, under the whell.
On the upright the microphone is clipped on a bracket attached to it...but it doesn't show on the picture.
Just another way if it can be done on your boat.  Just above the ram conection I also have a 12V lighter plug.

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6428.0.html