On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 07:43:10 -0500, Larry wrote:

ray lunder wrote in
:

Can I clip something on to the stainless steel backstay and
expect to get a signal?

Lots of sailboats have the neatest little antenna fed right into the main
cabin.....where the chainplate bolts hold the shrouds to the plastic. Most
of them are not grounded at this point. Hell, most of them are not
grounded at all, leaving you with an ungrounded lightning rod sticking up
out of the water just waiting to be hit, killing the family instantly.
It's simply a credit to the conductivity of seawater that it doesn't happen
more often than it does.

So, if you just add another nut to a handy, existing chainplate bolt and
put the hot wire of your receiver to it, you end up with a dandy antenna
just waiting for a lightning hit. If you run a heavy battery cable WITHOUT
those neat right angles boaters love from the bottom of the mast step to
the engine block, it will shunt off MOST, but not all, of the static
buildup that threatens the receiver and everyone aboard. It's not perfect
but it is safer.

Why didn't "they" ground everything? M-O-N-E-Y...same as always.

Larry

So what would a proper boat antenna look like? Examples, pictures,
name brands? Thanks as always.