[C320-list] Pedestal ICOM command mike

[Bill Culbertson]

You'll definitely love having the command mike at the pedestal and as others have said it 
is definitely more complicated that other locations.  IMO it's worth it.
 
What I did was somewhat less complicated than Allan. I'd read his first and decided to 
see if I could try the engine pod.  It worked so I stuck with it.  What I did the same as 
Allan is to buy the extension as well as cut the cable.  I bought a terminal block same as 
he did and reconnected the cut ends via the terminal block except that I mounted mine under 
the aft berth next to the fresh water pump.
 
What I did differently was run the cut cable end through the tube to the engine pod and 
mount the connector on that small flat section of the pod on the port side.  I clip the mike 
up high just under the sailing instruments.  I had hoped that cutting the cable end would 
allow me to thread the cable up the engine pod stainless tube without further ado.  Turns 
out, it just won't go.  So I disconnected the engine wiring pulled it down into the aft cabin 
while messengered from the pod.  Then I inserted the cut cable end from inside the engine 
pod and threaded that down the tube into the aft cabin.  When I ran out of cable, I had the 
connector end ready to mount into the hole in the pod I'd already drilled for it.
 
Disconnecting the engine wiring sounds scary but actually there is a terminal block inside 
the pod connecting the incoming cable harness to the various engine instruments.  So you 
are really just undoing the wires from the harness side of the terminal block.  With one 
exception, they are all uniquely color coded and the color code of the harness wire exactly 
matches the color code of its mate on the terminal block.  I labeled the one which didn't 
match its mate.  So for reassembly, you need only match the cable harness wire color 
code to the wire left attached to the instrument side of the terminal block. 
 
Once the harness wires are disconnected, I gathered them together, tied the messenger 
line into place with a series of half hitches spaced an inch apart and then spiral wrapped 
the whole thing with electrical tape.  There was probably an 8" length that was taped.  My 
son helped me with him below in the aft cabin gently pulling the cable (I'd removed the 
access cover from the aft cabin roof) and me up in the cockpit pushing/feeding it into the 
tube.  I can't remember if I sent the command-mike cable down as part of this operation or 
if I fed it down separately after the engine cable harness was removed from the tube.  
Regardless, you end up with the engine cable in the aft cabin and the cut end of the 
command mike in the aft cabin.  I secured the radio cable and my son and I fed the engine 
cable back into the tube him pushing on the cable and me pulling on the messenger.  I 
think I slathered joy dishwashing detergent on the engine cable harness to ease the 
process since it was now rubbing against the command mike cable on its way back into 
the pod.  Once it was in the pod I unraveled the tape and messenger and reconnected 
each wire to its mate on the terminal block.
 
For the mike cable, I ziptied it every 12-18" or so to existing wiring that was exiting the 
pedestal guard and fed it under the aft berth (easy).  As I said before, I mounted a terminal 
block to the board on which the fresh water pump is mounted and connected the free 
wires to that block.  I connected the other end of this cut cable to the terminal block and 
connected the connector to the 2nd intact 10' command mike cable from ICOM.  I ran that 
one under the fridge and under the stove (access by removing the teak "thingy" under the 
stove) and fed up to the navpanel.  I've run lots of cabling from the navpanel to the under-
the-stove area so that part was pretty familiar already.  One of those was a cat5 cable that 
I had managed to squeeze into the port-side of the pedestal as Al Ahlman recommends.  
I'd done that in an earlier wiring project.  That cable brings seatalk from the pedestal 
instruments back to an ST60 Multi unit on the navpanel
 
One last note.  For mounting the mike itself to the pedestal I borrowed an idea either from 
this list or from a dock mate or from a sailing magazine.  I bought a broom handle mount 
at the hardware store.  These clips expect something about 1" in diameter.  I screwed the 
broom handle clip to a small piece of plywood and screwed the mike connector to the 
opposite side of the plywood.  Now you just clip the mike to its connector and clip the 
broom handle clip directly to the 1" pedestal tube anywhere you like.  I tend to keep it just 
below the instruments.  But if I later put another navpod below the instruments for radar, I'll 
just clip it to another part of the pedestal tube.
 
I have a bunch of pics of the process.  I should upload them to the website.
 
 -bill
 Harmony #859
 
----- Original Message ----
From: Chuck and Kathy <katchu at chartermi.net>
To: c320-list at lists.catalina320.com
Sent: Monday, March 3, 2008 6:38:39 PM
Subject: Re: [C320-list] C320-list Digest, Vol 27, Issue 1

Thanks for all the help.  Allen - I particularly appreciate knowing that the
Icom cable won't fit without cutting it.  That will save me a lot of time.