Signal Interference between Electronics?

[JimBuck]

I am in the process of installing a new VHF Radio along with a CD Receiver and some speakers in my Sylvan Backtroller Tiller. In the process of laying out the wiring it came to my attention that I might have signal interference with my intended setup. I plan on having my VHF Radio mounted next to my GPS/Fishfinder on the left side of the boat (port) along with my CD Receiver in a cubby below on the left. The antenna for the VHF is a whopping 8' tall and will be mounted on the right side of the boat (starboard). Will this cause a problem with signal interference? Any tips on installing electronics to avoid frequency interference between boat and electronics would be great. Thanks guys.

[LMITOUT]

Essentially you're only going to have interference from the VHF radio when you transmit, so if you can live with that short duration of interference I wouldn't be too concerned about it. I have read where you should keep a reasonable distance between the antenna and the GPS pucks/locaters though. On my last boat the 5' antenna was right beside the driver's console but I didn't see any problems. The GPS puck was mounted on the gunnel on the same side but back near the splashwell, BTW.

Most of the time the noise on the stereo comes from the sonar pinging and it's important to be mindful of where the transducer cable is routed. Keep it away from the stereo and away from the stereo antenna. Same goes for livewell aerator wires.

On my current boat I had issues with the GPS puck being too close to the locater. People will say that you can be 1' away but I found out that is not true or a fluke if it works. It will completely mess up your GPS signal (at least it did on the Lowrance I have). For a while I couldn't figure out why my signal was erratic, so I pulled the puck off and started moving it around with my hand in the area where the graphs were and it was evident that it would kill the signal when the puck was in a certain proximity to the graphs. It didn't take much distance to make everything good again (six inches), but it just happened to within the boundary to mess it up.

If possible I would rig everything up without making any making anything permanent and test it out. This way you'll know for sure if the antennas are too close, etc. It might be a pain now but it'll be worth it if you have to drill new holes to move everything later.

[JimBuck]

Excellent post LMITOUT. I appreciate the lengthy answer. I think I will take your advice and just connect everything to see how things work within proximity of each other.