Quote:
Originally Posted by jrc
Usually a boat radio has two connections. One is the main power connection, it comes on when the boat systems are on and its connected to the battery that you are using.
The other connection is the radio memory, it is usually wired directly to one battery skipping the battery switch. This allows you to keep all your stations and clock when the battery switch is off.
So if your radio drained the battery all the way down, you may have lost your memory. I don't know if this can screw up the radio beyond just losing station and time. I know my radio has some weird modes, there's "off" and a really "off". Off has lights on the dials and fully off is dark.
My wife always complains that the radio is on when it is off with the lights on.
So you should have few connections directly to the battery, the radio memory and at least one bilge pump, plus sometimes the Mercathode.
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Agreed: My Sony marine radio will not function unless it's connected to both the continuous +12V ("radio memory" circuit that bypasses the battery switch just like the bilge pump) AND the switched 12V. I'm very confident your radio will work fine with two good batteries.
I recommend getting 600 CCA marine starting batteries. The reduction gear starter on your big block (and mine) does not really tax a battery all that much, especially since we only start them in warm weather. No need to carry big heavy batteries around, that's just wasting fuel.