On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 07:01:13 -0500, John H.
wrote:

Anyone - Is the performance of the 5' antenna seriously below that of the
8'er?

Either antenna will give you a boat-to-boat range of 5 to 10 miles.
Boat-to-shore range depends largely on antenna height of the shore
station with either. All things being equal the 8 ft should be
slightly better but I doubt that you'd see a big difference.