Since the DSC antenna is receive only, you could get some reception by
connecting that antenna port to any large and ungrounded piece of metal on
the boat. In some circumstances even a grounded metal object will work if
there are several feet between the antenna coax connection and the ground
point. This is the concept of the loop antenna. For instance, if you have
a mast that is grounded at the base and the back stay is not grounded at its
base then you could try connecting the DSC antenna port to the base of the
back stay and you would have a loop antenna from the base of the back stay
up to the top of the mast and down to ground.

If you have a fiberglass boat you could also put up a loop of wire on the
ceiling inside the cabin

"Ted" wrote in message
et...

the owners manual is he

http://www.icomamerica.com/support/manuals/ic-m802.pdf

On page 37, If I read it correctly, it says that the dedicated DSC
receiver and seperate DSC antenna is for scanning DSC distress/safety
channels only for distress, urgency and safety DSC messages. All other
DSC functions are available through the main antenna.



"Bjarke Christensen" (nej, det skal selvfølgelig
være med K da jeg er dansker) wrote in message
. dk...
Don't mess around with switches. To much risc. Check if it can be
confugured for a lower rate DSC (class D) where send/receive takes place
on the same (primary) antenna.

Bjarke

"Steve Thomas" wrote in message
...
If one didn't care about receiving DSC during transmit, wouldn't it be
possible to use an antenna relay, or a manual coaxial switch? I have
never
seen the latter, but I am sure they must exist. There is little enough
room
for hf antennas on a sailboat, but I really like your hand rail solution
for
GRP boats.