Stainless 3ft Vhf Antennas

[Mo Money]

Do those short little antennas work good or do they just look good?Anyone have one?I always thought a longer antenna would get the best reception and output.

[WaterDog]

VHF is pretty much line of sight so the taller the antenna the longer your range. If your fishing the ocean, the taller the better. If you stay inland, maybe the 3'er would be ok.

Remember not all antennas are created equal. They vary in price for a reason.

[backlash442]

Since you're going to be fishing offshore go with a longer antenna. Shakespeares 5225 is pretty good. Mount it as high as you can get it.

S.S. prop will give you better performance. It will also chop thru kelp w/out dinging your prop and cause cavitation. You have that big bulb kelp up north right? I have a friend who owns a prop shop and he didn't recommend me getting one (duo prop) for my old boat. Didn't feel the price justified the benefits for me. I haven't asked him about my Seahawk though. If you want PM me and give me the specs for the boat and I can ask him what he thinks and also the 150hp vs. 225hp.

[StickFish]

Taller antennas are not all made the same. Some are just 3 foot antennas mounted on a fiber glass mast. The Shakespeares 5225 is two 5/8's wave colinear antennas , also know as a 5/8 wave over a 5/8 wave antenna. At the same feed point elevation that antenna will out perform an end fed 1/2 wave mounted on top of a mast making them both the same height simpley cause the colinear design has more gain than the smaller antenna. The 1/2 wave also requires a better RF ground than the colinear which in a fiberglass boat can be interesting to obtain

With any VHF antenna - altitude rules. Good luck and be safe

[Draggin' Bait]

I have a 4' VHF antenna. Good antenna, not a cheappie, and I connected it to a high-end DSC-capable radio. I get very good reception and transmission. The short antennas are actually better in some situations, such as at the top of a sailboat mast (and no, I'm not a snailboater). If you are in rough water and pitching and rolling a lot, the short antennas will be less likely to fade in and out than the longer, higher db antennas will. Look at the transmit wavefront pattern of the various db antennas, you'll see why. I've never had a problem with ours, and we have been more than 43 miles offshore. Granted, I normally only do that in convoy with other boats so we're all keeping in contact, and have a good idea of where we all are. If you feel an 8- or 10-footer is cumbersome, don't be afraid to go for a quality 4-footer. It is still VHF, and it is still line-of-sight, though. Before I bought the fixed-mount I was able to call in the Coast Guard to help a sinking boater from about five miles out in a fog -- and that was with a five-inch antenna on a hand-held(of course the CG has their antenna mounted VERY HIGH). Other things being equal I'd go for a quality four-footer before a cheaper 8-footer every time, though neither will reach as far as a quality 8-footer!

[KChookem]

Hi Mo Money...

I have a 3-footer mounted on the side of my cuddy, and it works well. On a clear day, at or near the Rockpile (Newport) I did a radio check with the Yaquina Bay USCG - worked well.

On the other hand, I do not think I receive/overhear transmissions from boats that more than a few miles away (for example, I know there are two boats talking to one another, the one near me I hear, but the distant one I do not).

I'm thinking about going to an 8-footer, but that also has drawbacks for some of the fishing I do. Maybe I'll have one of each !!

From everything I've read, buy the best you can afford.

[trap50]

I talked to the guy at CB world in Albany. He sold me on a 8'. I picked up talk from winchester while fishing the river in Florence last fall.

[StickFish]

Hi Mo Money...

I have a 3-footer mounted on the side of my cuddy, and it works well. On a clear day, at or near the Rockpile (Newport) I did a radio check with the Yaquina Bay USCG - worked well.

On the other hand, I do not think I receive/overhear transmissions from boats that more than a few miles away (for example, I know there are two boats talking to one another, the one near me I hear, but the distant one I do not).

I'm thinking about going to an 8-footer, but that also has drawbacks for some of the fishing I do. Maybe I'll have one of each !!

From everything I've read, buy the best you can afford.



Here is a rule of thumb I took off another web site on calculating the distance that your VHF signal will travel. The example uses a aircraft, but the height of the aircraft can be substituted for the height of youo vhf antenna above the water

The rule-of-thumb: the maximum direct path distance (the distance to the horizon) between an aircraft and a ground station, in nautical miles, is equal to the square root of the aircraft height, in feet, above the underlying [flat] terrain. Actually it is 1.06 times the square root of the height but for our purposes that can be ignored.

Using this they sit that at 10 feet off the water your signal will travel 3.2 nautical miles - 100 feet 32nM.

I don't know the particulars of where the USCG repeater stations are located, but the Lincoln Country Emergency repeaters are at the top of the coast range, so I would expect that the USCG stuff is up there too - they probably use a uhf link system as well - but pure speculation there.

Again with VHF altitude is your best source for increasing the distance that you can communicate.

Here is the source for the info above

These are theoritical distances, VHF signals are http://www.auf.asn.au/comms/vhfradio.html

If you are really interested in the effects of your coax, and other things like Fade Margins, Path Losses, and what antenna gain is all about here is another item to look at

http://www.paccrst.com/downloads/application_notes/AppNote_UHF_VHF_Calc.pdf

And as always I'll talk you to sleep about radios if you want

73's ARS K7STW

[Draggin' Bait]

Remember that your effective talking range is equal to your range plus the range of your contact. So, even if your range is 3 miles to the horizon, and you want to talk to someone 6 miles away, if his range to the horizon is also three miles you can still talk. This of course assumes your power output reaches at least six miles in a straight line.