Radar not consistently sweeping

I apologize for flooding the group with questions. I'm sort of reinstalling, and lots of issues cropping up. Thanks for being here.

Two years ago, I uninstalled my radar (the mount location was removed....), and so haven't had it and don't recall what it used to do. But I think this is a new problem. I have just reinstalled my radar, and while it "works" just fine, it intermittently interrupts the sweep. It will make between 1/2 rotation, up to a max of about 5 rotations, and then the screen blanks and 1 second later resumes sweeping. The little green radar icon in the top right corner stays green. It seems to me that it is somehow getting a data interruption. My system has 2 MFD8 and the DRS4D Radar. As part of this relocation, I've moved a lot of stuff around, so it's hard to know what caused the problem. Here are the things I have changed.
* Hub has been moved. There is a RJ45 connector where it used to be, but I don't think that's an issue. There is a VERY slight chance that the power to the hub isn't robust, but the hub draws so little I don't think that is the problem.
* The DRS4D has been moved to the mast. As such, I need splices in all cables at the base of the mast for mast removal. This required cutting the ethernet cable, putting new ends on, and splicing with an RJ45 connector. The power cable wasn't long enough to simply cut and splice, so I added an additional 35 feet of shielded 14/2. The splice is to 3 terminals, +, -, and shield.

I have some possible thoughts.
* The power cable shield is no longer continuous. Am I getting/giving interference?
* When I spliced the new power cable on, I did not cut the old cable. So I probably have maybe 80-100' of cable. Is the DRS4D experiencing too much voltage drop on the cable?
* Does the ethernet splice present risks? I think that since "it works" it should always work, not intterupt -- but maybe there are errors that are sometimes not recoverable.

A lot of information here. I hope burried in it is the clues to an answer!

Harry
 
Very likely due to the heading sourced being switched error you have in RED at the top of the radar screen. What is the heading source and why is it being switched while the unit is in operations?

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Johnny,

Thank you! Your response makes sense. I use two heading sources.
-- A Quark GPS/Heading that is a bit unreliable -- and I think it is the only one on right now, and set as source. It is probably turning on/off (or, more accurately, getting missed and then reestablishing).
-- My ancient Raymarine autopilot. I think my Ray is all turned off at the moment. I should set that up as source (and it may have been that way before I did this big reconfiguration).

I'll go play with that. Thanks so much -- you "know" this stuff, so you could see that right away. Me, I'm just a struggling consumer!

I'll get you some feedback.
 
Johnny,

You nailed it. When I shifted to my other (more reliable) compass source, it solved the problem. And I tested it (shifted back and forth) and it worked with one, not the other. I'm less than happy with the Quark GPS/Compass unit.....

Thanks for the help!
 
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