I hate to say it but there sure is a bunch of ignorance here concerning VHF antennas
 

wrote in message
...

That would be FAR superior to nothing! LOL

You could have also used it for quickly verifying that the radio was
not your problem.


Right - it's on my US shopping list...

Interestingly, and not surprisingly, my WHAM mike, which seemed to be
defective, now works just fine (with the suspect radio, now proven good,
connected to my helm antenna).

So, all that's left is the cable selection. Great source lead recently, and
I'm leaning very strongly to either 400 (stranded center, good for
flexibility), 213 (better moisture, great throughput, small for easy
handling) or 214 Mil (not so easy handling, but bulletproof). As I've said
all along, the price difference isn't really significant in the total scheme
of things.

Thanks for all the input in this (heh - Wilbur managed to start a good
thread! - Thanks, Wilbur!) and the anomalies thread.

Anyone else with significant info please chime in.

L8R

Skip

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to
make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in
its hand
(Richard Bach)

I hate to say it but there sure is a bunch of ignorance here concerning VHF antennas
 

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:37:05 -0500, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

Is this a viable alternative?

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|344|302025|320647|321064&id=70975

Not really, it's not much better than a handheld rubber ducky. I
used to have a second Metz mounted on the stern pulpit, or in your
case, I'd mount it on the arch.


Hm. Why isn't it? No gain? Lousy cable (looks pretty thin, but if it's
brand new???)? Something else?

It's not really feasible for me to mount another antenna on the arch, in
that all the likely points are already occupied. As it was, it was pretty
challenging to put up the MMSI antenna, and wiring would be a bitch at this
point, particlularly with cable of any size.

At that, the helm radio has a stick, with its attached cord, which isn't all
that thick - a typical shakespear ~24" which mounts on a 1" screw - so,
likely, it's not more/better than 8, thinking that Shakespear isn't likely
to equip theirs with 213...

And, once I get it down, I can play with all the excess cable I have from
the current nav installation. In the shop (my workbench on the boat), I
don't mine redoing all the connections if I think they're suspect. So, I'd
have lots of it to snake anywhere I wanted, on the surface, in the event of
some mishap.

WRT a (strictly) spare antenna, would you stow it until needed, or mount it
somewhere, sans cable?

Thanks again for all the thought-provokers and ideas...

L8R

Skip


--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to
make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in
its hand
(Richard Bach)

I hate to say it but there sure is a bunch of ignorance here concerning VHF antennas
 

In article ,
wrote:

My guess is that more radio failures are caused by the cheap included
mics that come attached to most VHF radios, and the extremely failure
prone coily cord for the mic. Do you carry a spare mic and cord? You
can have the healthiest VHF carrier in the world, but without high
quality modualtion it won't matter. I often hear weak, garbled VHF
transmissions that have an adequate carrier to reach me. Stock mics
tend to be a very weak link.

In 40+ years of being a Marine Radioman, I have replaced 50 times more
Mic Cords than sections of Bad Coax... What is it with Boat Skippers,
that they just have to stretch the Mic Cords clear out to the Breaking
Point.....

--
Bruce in alaska
add path after fast to reply

I hate to say it but there sure is a bunch of ignorance here concerning VHF antennas
 

On Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:53:30 -0500, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

WRT a (strictly) spare antenna, would you stow it until needed, or mount it
somewhere, sans cable?

On my old Ca-34 it was permanently mounted on the stern pulpit with a
short length of cable run below to the nav station so that it could be
plugged in quickly if needed.

I hate to say it but there sure is a bunch of ignorance here concerning VHF antennas
 

On Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:12:25 -0900, Bruce in alaska
wrote:

In 40+ years of being a Marine Radioman, I have replaced 50 times more
Mic Cords than sections of Bad Coax... What is it with Boat Skippers,
that they just have to stretch the Mic Cords clear out to the Breaking
Point.....

The mic cord that I just replaced for the ICOM M802 had never been
over stretched, was lightly used, and less than 5 years old. I think
the rubber quality leaves a lot to be desired.

I hate to say it but there sure is a bunch of ignorance here concerning VHF antennas
 

On Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:08:47 -0600, brian whatcott
wrote:

Ones with a polythene cover won't give off acid - but air dielectric
will soak up moisture sooner or later.....

Mostly sooner.