So after all the driving back and forth from Sooke my cars muffler has gone. It sounds like a souped up honda civic, being cruised down Southend seafront by a hormonal 17 year old who is desperately mackin’ on the drunk teenager girls spilling out of Chinnerys.
That doesn’t matter though, since my mast is back on and I am back in Victoria! Yeah!
The mast went on Saturday
This is always terrifying
Hooking the boom back 
LOOK AT ALL MY NEW SHIT
I even managed to get everything aligned correctly!
The trip back Sunday was pretty uneventful – very little wind, and the sun came out! I had a friend with me too so it went very nicely. The only thing is that I had no forestay, just a temporary one made from a bit of rope (my new furler didn’t have all the pieces so it’s being finished today) and we hit a bit of chop, which caused the backstay to sag and then snap taught alarmingly.
Obligatory sunrise shots…
Mast work is on my agenda one of these days, seems like you did good!
Thanks – a bunch of hassle though. I hope you already have conduit in your mast – that was the most frustrating bit by far! Hows the hand?
I do, whether it’s any good or not I have no idea. So far nothing on the mast works. The hand is there still! I start hand therapy soon, I have a loooooong way to go.
That is a lot of cable and wiring in that mast now getting it hooked up thru the cabin roof without leaking thats the next trick!
I looked at the RF connection(Part4) you made and it looks like the ground which is the outer shield might be a cold solder joint being a Ham Radio guy (N1QCV) that is not a good thing it should look very smooth and flow into the holes and onto the outer shield the result if not a good connection will be increased noise since there is no easy ground return for the signal.
I was worried about something like that Skip, as I am new at this, thanks for the heads up. What would you suggest is the easiest and best way to make a connection? Crimp/solder mix?
I use a big old solder iron the kind that has a tip that is about 2 cm in diameter. If you feel lucky you could try a torch but it has a high risk of melting the coax insulator.. It takes a lot of heat to do it right. Also you can try some flux for solder do not use the stuff for copper plumbing it has an acid in it that will destroy the coax over time.Also to keep out salt air in the connection use a coax seal example http://www.cablexperts.com/cfdocs/cat.cfm?ItemGroup=15&itmsub=0&bskt=0&USA_ship=1&c=0, It is a butyl rubber tape that seals to self. Crimping is not recommend for the salt air (the pre-made coax is almost always a crimp). The joint made by the crimp increases in resistance meaning that the signal you are transmitting gets reduced over time.
If I remember I do not think my coax setup followed my recommendations. That shows we learn over time !
Thanks Skip!
I don’t know what others think, but I’ll say you banged out that mast project like a pro and in record time!
Hey thanks! I think the trick is to be working somewhere you don’t want to be in the boonies with no cellphone signal, and therefore no distractions… I guess the proof will come when I hook everything up and hope it works!