NMEA Communication Issues Resolved

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Since taking possession of my 2020 R29S in July/19 I have had intermittent issues with communication between devices on NMEA2000. Ranger and Garmin visited my boat a number of times attempting to fix this, but the problem persisted. As it was intermittent it was difficult to resolve. The problem appeared as no AIS reception and no GPS signal to the VHF. Based on a warranty visit by Garmin today, the cause was determined to be poor connections between "T" branches in the NMEA backbone. The method of installation by Ranger was to assemble the"T"s together (6 or 7 in total) and then tie the assembled backbone down in the space forward of the cave on the starboard side. The assembled backbone was about 16 inches long and held in place by two screws. The solution was to tie all 7 Ts in the assembled backbone to a piece of wood (each "T" has its own screw-down point) and then install the complete assembly. This avoids bending the backbone during installation and also (hopefully) the intermittent loss of connectivity while operating the boat. I wanted to alert others in case you have been chasing similar problems.

Thanks to Kenny and the Ranger team for sticking with this effort until a solution was apparently found. Hopefully I won't be back with an update that problems are back!