Cell Phone and A/P

[bill walton]

I was out Friday working, I mean cruising along, under autopilot and remembered aa call I was supposed to make. I stood up at the helm and hit the send button on my digital cell phone and my boat tried to do a 180. I'd never thought the minimal output power could interfere with the AP. I don't know what else it could have been.

 

[Paul Akers]

Same thing...

...happened to me earlier this summer when my wife made a call to work from the cockpit.I couple of years ago the same thing happened when I was leaning over and ajdusting the AP while transmitting on the handheld.Since the AP compass is an electrinic fluxgate compass, I can understand that the signals could interfere with the AP.

 

[Victor Robert]

VHF vs Depth Electronics

I had a similar, but more severe experience that made me appreciate just how powerful those invisible little radio waves can be. A call came in on my Standard brand VHF radio mounted in the cockpit. When I pressed the talk button to answer, my Autohelm depth instrument went nuts; the depth alarm sounded and the display faded to almost nothing. This happened every time I keyed the microphone. The radio is mounted about 10 inches from the depth display. I finally traced the problem to a loose antenna cable connection on the back of the radio. The depth display never recovered and has been dim ever since.Victor Roberts/v Bluebirdsvbluebird@cs.com