BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

GregS[_3_]

In article , (GregS) wrote:
In article ,
Larryr wrote:
Hi, A year ago, I bought a LCD TV which tunes analog and digital
channels. I first tried to use the VHF masthead whip as an antenna
with poor results, same with rabbit ears. I made a horizontal wire
loop out of a bucket lid and a twin lead to coax transformer to hang
in the rig. I noticed that when swinging at anchor, the motion of the
boat caused the digital channels to freeze or glitch with pixelation
and audio squawks. I would then switch to the analog channel and put
up with the inferior quality.

Realizing that the time was rapidly approaching when I would not be
able to continue viewing by going analog, I decided to buy an
amplified antenna to hang in the rig. I chose a winegard ms2000 omni
which has a fairly large 21 inch saucer, a 3 watt power injector, was
supposed to come with 50' of RG 6. It arrived and I installed it. It
came with RG 59 and cheap F connectors, so I didn't use that. I flew
it and the reception was not quite as good as my home made passive
loop. I changed out coax, unplugged the power injector, and
determined that the cable was good and the amp was functioning.

So, I am very dissatisfied with this unit's performance. I am looking
for suggestions as to how to improve my drop out situation while
swinging on the hook. It should be omni directional, i think. I
understand that digital's phase sensitivity to movement is much
greater than analog. Any Ideas? Not interested in servo gyro type
stuff.

I never tried swinging an antenna ! I bought a RCA omni some time ago and
it has a amplifier, but the selection switch on the control makes no
difference in high/low band reception. I suspect something faulty.
Well Tandy used to sell the best little antenna that had a motorized
dipole type system inside a thin round case. That was NOT sold at Radio Shack
that I know of. JC Whitney had them, but its long gone. The best system
would be a home made one with amplification and directionality of
some sort, either phasing or motorization.

greg

I guess you could also rotate one of those sticks with a rotator.
greg