Excellent thoughts, all, John, thanks! --Craig ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Fleming" <jfleming1231@earthlink.net> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, April 14, 2003 2:32 AM Subject: Thingamajigs and Doohickies Honshells wrote: Older M17 owners: If you have the tricolor running lights at the top of your mast, what do you call the thru-deck screw-in connection between the mast wiring and the boat wiring? Could a VHF coaxial cable also run through that same piece of hardware? If not, is there a different piece of hardware available that could be mounted in the same hole, but handle both the mast wiring and the coax? Or is my only recourse to add a second thru-deck screw-in connection for the coax? Yes, you have to have a second connection for the coax. RF and DC do not, must not mix. You have two choices for the coax thru-hull. Drill a large hole, and put a female-to-female through-hull coaxial connector. The other way is to drill a small hole, run the coax through, and on the outside, use a cable thru-hull to seal the gap between the coax and the deck. These are round metal doohickies, with a rubber donut that is compressed by a threaded cap. You then terminate the coax right above the deck with a female connector. You can see them in the West Marine catalog. I preferred the second. I try to avoid large thru-hulls, and it seemed the more secure installation. That large thru-hull threaded coax barrel looked like a leak waiting to happen. And with Montgomery balsa-cored decks, especially close to the mast step, keeping water out of the core is very important. In both cases the connector coming from the mast will be of the male polarity. Don't forget to put a cap on the outside connector when not in use. Otherwise the thru-hull will leak and corrode. Water will get in the coax running to the radio, and then your radio won't work, and you'll have to replace the coax. Drag. John Fleming M-17: "Star Cross'd"