"MazingTree" wrote in
o.uk:

solderless connection to enable the cable to be unscrewed and checked

I don't like it. Solderless usually means corroded within 5 miles of the
sea.

Larry W4CSC wrote:
Kees Verruijt wrote in
ll.nl:


Of course, on our side of the Atlantic we've never heard of the bloody
outfit...




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

In article ,
"Steve Lusardi" wrote:

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......

In article ,
krj wrote:

Used my VHF for a 1300 nm contact today.
krj

Can you say "Troposhperic Ducting", with a straight face???


Me

Me wrote:
In article ,
krj wrote:


Used my VHF for a 1300 nm contact today.
krj


Can you say "Troposhperic Ducting", with a straight face???


Me
Can you say satellite communications?
krj

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



"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
"MazingTree" wrote in
.uk:

Would have the URL for Waste Marine, I can't see this listed in Google?
I wonder if you have a typo, it seems an odd name for a company selling
marine equipment :-)



Shakespeare manufactures marine antennas in the US. Go to Google and
search for:

Shakespeare ART-2 Antenna Radio Tester

There are lots of dealers. I looked at Shakespeare's website and see they
have a new model out, the ART-3, but have never seen one. The ART-2 has
been out for many years. It's all you need.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Shakespeare+ART-
2+Antenna+Radio+Tester&btnG=Google+Search

The PDF catalog is at:
http://www.shakespeare-marine.com/catalog/fullline.pdf
Click on "Radio Accessories" in the control panel of the Adobe Acrobat
Reader. It's the 2nd unit down on the left.

"krj" wrote in message
. ..
Me wrote:
In article ,
krj wrote:


Used my VHF for a 1300 nm contact today.
krj


Can you say "Troposhperic Ducting", with a straight face???


Me
Can you say satellite communications?
krj

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

Lines: 27
Message-ID:
X-Complaints-To:
X-Abuse-Info: Please forward a copy of all headers for proper handling
X-Trace: ldjgbllpbapjglppdbdpiflmbcekedmfhojhikkbagflhcbopl ldajagmlfikhcchboeneagdmedomkfknklmnppknpfijbippne obeolemhmahidgkjfhipliackkdkkiapijdokfickdljebeelh cnmdabofba
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 18:48:13 EDT
Organization: BellSouth Internet Group
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 22:48:13 GMT
Xref: number1.nntp.dca.giganews.com rec.boats.electronics:60527


On 2005-06-08 Larry said:
"MazingTree" wrote in
. co.uk:
solderless connection to enable the cable to be unscrewed and
checked I don't like it. Solderless usually means corroded within
5 miles of the sea.

I was thinking the same thing. SOlderless connections are not robust
enough for me for most applications. I don't use the solderless coax
connectors anywhere in my operations.

sOunds like it's time to change out that antenna for something a
little more fit for the duties you expect of it.



Richard Webb, amateur radio callsign nf5b
active on the Maritime Mobile service network, 14.300 mhz
REplace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real email

--



agood captain is one who is hoisting his first drink in a
bar when the storm hits.

"Doug" wrote in
nk.net:

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;

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


wrote in message
. ..

On 2005-06-08 Larry said:
"MazingTree" wrote in
. co.uk:
solderless connection to enable the cable to be unscrewed and
checked I don't like it. Solderless usually means corroded within
5 miles of the sea.

I was thinking the same thing. SOlderless connections are not robust
enough for me for most applications. I don't use the solderless coax
connectors anywhere in my operations.

sOunds like it's time to change out that antenna for something a
little more fit for the duties you expect of it.



Richard Webb, amateur radio callsign nf5b
active on the Maritime Mobile service network, 14.300 mhz
REplace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real email

--



agood captain is one who is hoisting his first drink in a
bar when the storm hits.