I have just added one of these Fuze Blocks to my boat and just started wiring it up. I connected my stereo radio to the fuze block, and the radio works great. Nice and clear with no static at all. So I am listening to the radio while I prepare the wiring for the VHF. As soon as I connect the ground wire for the VHF to the fuze block, the stereo gets a shhhhhhhhh in it. It isn't very loud, but certainly loud enough to be irritating. It stays constant when I connect the red wire to the fuze block too. Doesn't matter if the VHF is on or off.
I know that I have several things to look into, but I was wondering what the likely candidates might be. Here is some additional information.
1. The power cables from the deep cycle battery (I think it is 12ga but might be 14ga) run across the back of the boat along the upper edge of the transom to the starboard side where it then runs along side of the wiring harness for the rest of the boat.
2. The fuze block is mounted in a small storage compartment just below the helm. The Stereo and the VHF are also mounted in or very near.
3. The stereo (a Pyle of . . .) is mounted only about 4"-6" away from the fuze block.
4. The VHF radio is mounted on a sidewall that is only a 3/4" piece of plywood away from the stereo.
5. The VHF and the Stereo share the same antenna. This is one of the Shakespeare 8' fiberglass antennas, and it is mounted just outside the console on the side of the boat, so maybe a foot and a half away from the fuze block.
6. The antenna cable is coiled behind the console area as close the the gunwale as I could make it, and is then connected to a signal splitter. The antenna cables for the VHF and the Stereo are connected to the splitter.
7. I have not done much cleanup of the wiring yet and so things are still pretty jumbled up. The problem is that there isn't a whole lot of space to separate things anyway. But even when I try to manually separate any of the wiring, nothing changes. The shh is constant.
8. While I was typing all this up, I just thought of this. I have a dual battery setup with the batteries connected to a Perko switch. At the moment, the selector is set to "both", so I can check to see what happens when I change it.
9. There is nothing else that is turned on except the stereo. The ignition is off, the VHF isn't even fully connected (when I take the red power wire back off again), no accessories on, no lights, no fans, or anything else.
10. Before adding the fuze block, I had kludged everything to be run to the Accessory switch on the console. So battery power would come from the boats "normal" wiring harness to the fuze, then to the switch on the dash, and then I had a mess of stuff connected to the other pole of the switch. All ground wires for the radios and whatnot were connected to the gauge panel ground. With this setup, the stereo was as clear as a bell with no shhh, and it played very nicely with the VHF.
11. Not sure if this matters or not, but the VHF is a 25 year old Apelco that was cheap even back in 1987. But it has worked great all that time.
12. My Humminbird Fish finder power is also connected to this fuze block, but at the moment the FF head isn't even in the boat so I don't know how well it is going to play with the two radios yet.
Man! I sure did type a lot. Sorry about that. But any suggestions are welcome except the suggestion to NOT write so much.
Wayne
I know that I have several things to look into, but I was wondering what the likely candidates might be. Here is some additional information.
1. The power cables from the deep cycle battery (I think it is 12ga but might be 14ga) run across the back of the boat along the upper edge of the transom to the starboard side where it then runs along side of the wiring harness for the rest of the boat.
2. The fuze block is mounted in a small storage compartment just below the helm. The Stereo and the VHF are also mounted in or very near.
3. The stereo (a Pyle of . . .) is mounted only about 4"-6" away from the fuze block.
4. The VHF radio is mounted on a sidewall that is only a 3/4" piece of plywood away from the stereo.
5. The VHF and the Stereo share the same antenna. This is one of the Shakespeare 8' fiberglass antennas, and it is mounted just outside the console on the side of the boat, so maybe a foot and a half away from the fuze block.
6. The antenna cable is coiled behind the console area as close the the gunwale as I could make it, and is then connected to a signal splitter. The antenna cables for the VHF and the Stereo are connected to the splitter.
7. I have not done much cleanup of the wiring yet and so things are still pretty jumbled up. The problem is that there isn't a whole lot of space to separate things anyway. But even when I try to manually separate any of the wiring, nothing changes. The shh is constant.
8. While I was typing all this up, I just thought of this. I have a dual battery setup with the batteries connected to a Perko switch. At the moment, the selector is set to "both", so I can check to see what happens when I change it.
9. There is nothing else that is turned on except the stereo. The ignition is off, the VHF isn't even fully connected (when I take the red power wire back off again), no accessories on, no lights, no fans, or anything else.
10. Before adding the fuze block, I had kludged everything to be run to the Accessory switch on the console. So battery power would come from the boats "normal" wiring harness to the fuze, then to the switch on the dash, and then I had a mess of stuff connected to the other pole of the switch. All ground wires for the radios and whatnot were connected to the gauge panel ground. With this setup, the stereo was as clear as a bell with no shhh, and it played very nicely with the VHF.
11. Not sure if this matters or not, but the VHF is a 25 year old Apelco that was cheap even back in 1987. But it has worked great all that time.
12. My Humminbird Fish finder power is also connected to this fuze block, but at the moment the FF head isn't even in the boat so I don't know how well it is going to play with the two radios yet.
Man! I sure did type a lot. Sorry about that. But any suggestions are welcome except the suggestion to NOT write so much.
Wayne
