Radar Techician (sort of)

Last night I cranked up the radar as the beginning of a program to familiarize myself with the unit from the comfort and security of the slip and with the target-rich environment of passing barges, cruise liners, sail boats, warships, etc.

The unit would not come on. I read the manual over and over but could not see a procedural fault.

This morning the radar was still on the fritz so I decided that before I called in some help I'd better check every simple thing that I could think of. What had changed? Well, I took out the new navigation cartridge and that didn't help. I took the ST60 wind vane off the Seatalk network in case it was snarling up the data flow. That wasn't it. There had been some recent rigging work done so I went up the mast and made sure that the radome was intact and the connection firm. No cracks on the radome, connection was good. I then opened the panel behind the chart plotter and checked for any obvious loose connection. There was none, and the radar still wasn't working. The last shot in the locker was the junction box where the cabling from the mast is joined to the cabling through the cabin. Nothing obvious there. However, I left the connectors hanging out, switched on the radar, and Voila! I could see. Must have been a flaky connection but I could not find it.

I put everything back together again and oops, radar yes, but GPS no. The boat's position was not being displayed on the chart plotter. OK, back to the rear connectors of the C120 and firming them up. Yep, I now had position and radar. I put everything back together, powered down then back up and all was still well.

Wally recommends contact spray on every connection.

That was another manifestation of what I call the Pachuca Tango, which is real simple: two steps forward and one step back.