And I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.
So I figured I’d do my first “putting new stuff in” on something REALLY easy. Take a swing at a softball, grab the low hanging fruit and all that to get my confidence up.
What can be easier than a new stereo? Millions of landlubbers install those things in their cars, and those can’t even sink.
We decided to add those in as an afterthought – the existing stereos (yes, there are two) had several problems. The main unit was a JVC with a snazzy 12 CD changer. I found this exciting, I’ve never had anything with a changer on my home stereo, just in the car. But there were two problems. Somebody (who shall remain nameless) installed one of those CAR stereo units with the removable face plates. I guess I figured he could take it with him on the dinghy so no one would steal the stereo while he was gone or something.
Anyway, this nice JVC stereo had a removable faceplate, and the person that installed it did a rather poor job of it and did it loosely and broke some of the snaps that hold it in. So the face plate would randomly fall off or pop loose…ending all music. At one point there was a remote for this thing so you might have been able to at least turn it down from the cockpit, but it was line of sight IR only so you had to be in the companionway with it – that got lost pretty fast. Add this to the fact that the 12 CD player actually didn’t seem to be able to read many CD’s and spent most of it’s time chugging up and down the CD bays looking for one it could read you get a system which was basically useless.
The stereo in the Master Stateroom didn’t have much wrong with it except it had 1) no CD player and 2) no AUX line jack on the front. The only way to listen to something other than the radio or a tape (which we don’t have any of any more I think) was to use one of those cassette shaped inserts with a wire you plug in to your auxiliary device. Noisy, and in this case also ineffective since the tape player insisted on reversing directions every few seconds, interrupting the sound.
So I picked out a couple of stereos – Jensens; not top of the line but both with features I wanted including an optional iPod/iPhone dock and the ability to add satellite radio at a later day. We’re hardly audiophiles and there really isn’t room to be on a boat anyway. No way a sub woofer is fitting anywhere. But I did order a larger, more expensive and powerful unit for the main saloon stereo since it would be running speakers in the saloon and the cockpit, and a smaller one for the aft cabin.
So of course when I went to install this I found that it fit very nicely in the slot that was already cut. However the front face was so large that it bumped the drawer below it. Outside of looking really stupid and huge where I was planning to install it, I would have had to start sawing up mahogany to move it away from the drawer.
As I sat there on the cabin floor with a coping saw and a stencil trying to figure out how I can cut 1/4″ off the top of the hole and nail/glue it to the bottom of the hole again it finally dawned on my what a profoundly stupid idea this was.
So naturally I grabbed the other radio, which though it came in a monstrous box is in fact a smaller unit about the size of your typical car stereo. Hooking it up was pretty easy, I had the wires from the old JVC there and it was all labeled. All went well until I turned the power on to test it.
Pop…the small sound of a breaker resetting in the main panel. A little twitch under my finger is the only clue about what is happening.
The long and short of it – radio #2 is dead; stone dead. So dead that apparently it is shorting right back to the breaker and blowing it. A few phone calls later and I’ve confirmed it’s demise, or more appropriately it’s still birth.
0 for 2…so much for the low hanging fruit.
So a trip to Defender to return them and get a new pair of the MSR3007 (small) radios and we’re good to go. Both are now installed, pending installation of the optional iPod cable and wire tying it all together. Of course the antenna connection will need to be redone later, but for now at least I will at least be able to have reliable music while I work.
Tomorrow’s Adventure (weather permitting): removing the old VHF/Cell/TV/FM/AM/Smoke Signal/SSB/Weather Fax cables from the rig and replacing them with a single VHF cable and antenna to be used for VHF, AIS reception and FM radio only.
