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VHF Radio Range Problem

K

Kees Verruijt

Jan 1, 1970
0
Larry said:
Sorry for causing the confusion. You haven't missed anything having never
been in an overpriced West Marine store.

In proper Dutch, "Watersport Mafia," is what we call the combined marine
stores over here in the Netherlands. I suspect this translates _real_
easy into English ;-)

-- Kees
 
M

Me

Jan 1, 1970
0
Steve Lusardi said:
If your boat is fiberglass or wood, make certain you have a ground plane for
the antenna. The earth connection of your transceiver needs to connect to
large matt or screen on the hull which is connected electrically with the
water. Some boat builders bond the screen into the deck. As a check, borrow
a VHF base station antenna and see if it performs correctly. If it does, you
have found your problem. Now fixing it, is another matter.
Steve

The construction of the hull of the vessel has absolutly "No Bearing"
on the preformance of a VHF Marine Antenna, that is on a mast, or
elevated more than 3 feet off the deck. Any advice to the contrary
is just plain BS. Any installation of "Screen" in the deck of a vessel
for Grouding Purposes is also plainly BS, and is basically a useless
undertaking. Again, any advice to the contrary is uninformed,
especially for Vhf Antennas, and even for MF/HF Antennas. If you
would like to dispute the above, feel free to give us your source
of this great "Radio Wisdom". We can all use a good laugh and smile
session.


Me who really would enjoy, someone defending the above statments
with REAL Science, and Real Physics......
 
M

MazingTree

Jan 1, 1970
0
Many thanks for the comprehensive replies here,
Checking them out now!

I have also spotted something called and AV-40 Avair, which also looks like
it might do the trick, and seems available over here.

John
 
L

Larry W4CSC

Jan 1, 1970
0
Twenty years ago I used a 2 meter ham handheld running 1 watt to talk
from Portland, OR to China...it was via repeaters in the pacific NW
intertie and then commercial (Boeing Aviation?) satellite link from
Seattle to China and back out on a ham repeater. I must admit it
surprised me greatly at first, but then I figured out what was going
on.

I was talking to a guy riding the train into Helsinki, Finland, through
their local UHF repeater on top of some mountain from Charleston a few
months ago....so there....(sticks tongue out, smiling)

Of course, I was on Echolink on the computer VoIP for ham radio...(c;

My Swiss buddy, Werner, AA4IX, is from Berner Oberland in unbelievably
beautiful countryside of Thun on the Thuner See (lake). There is a
repeater on top of one of the local mountains on Echolink he talks to his
buddies back in HB9-land daily. Of course, an ugly American, I don't speak
German. Other German friends claim Berner Oberland doesn't speak German,
either...(c;
 
M

MazingTree

Jan 1, 1970
0
Richard,

Actually I had a look at the Shakepear Antenna, and the Vtronix (Great Hawk)
in a shop today. The Great Hawk has a quite superior solderless connection,
it appears to use gold plated parts, and has two sealing O rings, and is
quite clever in construction. I do take the point about a soldered
connection, but although I do have a nice weller soldering iron, it would be
interesting doing that at the top of the mast!

If we compare that with the Shakespear antenna, although the Shakespear
antenna itself certainly looks pretty robust, the connector is just a
standard RF type as far as I can see, and therefore less well protected from
the elements than the Great Hawk. There may be some grommet to cover it up,
but I couldn't see one in the Antenna pack.
A look around my Marina here in the UK, shows that Vtronix, both with wind
vane and without would appear to outnumber the Shakespear probably 4 to 1.
The main marine specialist here in Plymouth does not stock them, although a
smaller chamndlery did. So I think on balance I still have a good quality
bit of kit.

Any way it's up the mast now, and done. I have a VSWR meter in the post for
£29, which will also confirm my cable works fine too and the I have a
perfect matching antenna - Hopefully :)

The one thing I would say here in the UK is that no-one in the Marine
industry appears to let on that you can buy a cheap meter and test your own
set. The best advice I got from UK electronics dealers, is that if you
bring in the set, we can test it for £20, then if it's not the set, we come
out and test it, but that was an opene ended price. I guess they have to
make a living! I also suppose that's why I came to a newgroup.

Thanks everyone for all the information.

John
 
E

engsol

Jan 1, 1970
0
Tropscatter should remind Bruce in AK of the old White Alice systems up
there.

73
Doug K7ABX

It reminds me also. Did you happen to work on them too, Doug?

The DEW-Line used Troposcatter Quad Diversity radio systems too.
I loved putting that on resumes, except no one knew what it meant.

I worked on both the DEW-Line and White Alice (plus flew the Barrier (WV-2) while in the
USN, from Midway to Adak and return...non-stop).
We used to keep AFRN on a speaker so we could tell if fading was beginning.
The first time I heard the pop song "Vibrations" on AFRN, I nearly freaked...I *knew*
my radios were going down, but didn't have a clue as to how or why....:)
Norm B
 
L

Larry W4CSC

Jan 1, 1970
0
The one thing I would say here in the UK is that no-one in the Marine
industry appears to let on that you can buy a cheap meter and test
your own set. The best advice I got from UK electronics dealers, is
that if you bring in the set, we can test it for £20, then if it's not
the set, we come out and test it, but that was an opene ended price. I
guess they have to make a living! I also suppose that's why I came
to a newgroup.

Same as here, but maybe we're a little more "enlightened", for some unknown
reason.

Just keep shipping those wonderful ales I love....thanks...(c;

One thing I had to apologize for is TEA. There were two RAF pilots who had
been guarding the skies over Charleston after 9/11 sitting in a restaurant
I was in, drinking hot tea. I thanked them for what they were doing for us
and profusely apologized for the terrible tea they were being forced to
drink in our country. Had a great time talking to them after that....
 
L

Larry W4CSC

Jan 1, 1970
0
Would that have been the AN/TRC-80? Shaw AFB used to have one setup across
the runway back in the 70s. BIG microwave dish, pointed at the horizon
only a few feet off the ground. I used to tell the neighbors that thing
was the reason their TV was always tore up.....NOT my ham radio station. I
wasn't the one running MEGAWATTS in the neighborhood....(c; I've tried to
post one to alt.binaries.pictures.sports.ocean but it's been kinda spotty
of late...

73 DE W4CSC
 
B

Bruce in Alaska

Jan 1, 1970
0
Doug said:
Twenty years ago I used a 2 meter ham handheld running 1 watt to talk from
Portland, OR to China...it was via repeaters in the pacific NW intertie and
then commercial (Boeing Aviation?) satellite link from Seattle to China and
back out on a ham repeater. I must admit it surprised me greatly at first,
but then I figured out what was going on.
Troposcatter? Ionized meteor trails? Tropoducting? Aurora bounce? All of the
these can result in long distance VHF marine communications but none last
for long or occur very often.
Tropscatter should remind Bruce in AK of the old White Alice systems up
there.

73
Doug K7ABX

Yep, but those systems can't work today as the fequencies used then, are
in the Cellular Band now. Can you imagine a 40Kw 20 Mhz wide cellular
singals, with 90 Ft parabolic antennas on each end, and this was all
before transistors.

Bruce in alaska
 
D

Dennis Pogson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Larry said:
Same as here, but maybe we're a little more "enlightened", for some
unknown reason.

Just keep shipping those wonderful ales I love....thanks...(c;

One thing I had to apologize for is TEA. There were two RAF pilots
who had been guarding the skies over Charleston after 9/11 sitting in
a restaurant I was in, drinking hot tea. I thanked them for what
they were doing for us and profusely apologized for the terrible tea
they were being forced to drink in our country. Had a great time
talking to them after that....

Your teabags are great for scaring away the gulls. That bit of string is SO
useful for hanging them from the boom.

In the UK we think that tea bought in a teabag is usually sweepings from the
blending room floor, but we still drink the stuff!

Dennis.
 
L

Larry W4CSC

Jan 1, 1970
0
In the UK we think that tea bought in a teabag is usually sweepings
from the blending room floor, but we still drink the stuff!

Dennis.

In Boston, we shoveled the good tea overboard.....remember?...(c;
 
M

MazingTree

Jan 1, 1970
0
I replaced the old antenna, which when looked at up the mast appeared to be
a quire weathered, and had some corrosion. The connector appeared very good
though still, so I reckoned the cable would be OK still.

The new antenna works much better and I even picked up Guernsey radio from
Plymouth sound Breakwater, which has to be about 80 Miles! Not sure I would
have been able to call them back mind!!
Comms to friends this weekend has been what I would expect from a standard
25W VHF, so looks like it was the Antenna.

Thanks for everyones help in this matter.

John
 
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