Re: [Paddlewise] Roger, Wilco. . .

Michael J Edelman wrote:
 
[many snips]

> Narrow beam aka high gain antennas aren't a good choice for seaborne use unless
> you're in an actively stabilized boat ;-) The antenna must be properly oriented to
> take advantage of the narrow radiation pattern.
> 
> A simple whip can be made from a BNC connector, a length of music wire and a
> plastic bead to protect one's self from the pointy end. It *will* have a great
> advantage over a rubber duck; duckies are very lossy and can have less than ten
> percent of the efficiency of a simple whip.  A half-wave marine antenna mounted on
> the deck will have even better efficiency.

Many thanks to Michael, Bob Denton, Phil Wylie's buddy, and the others
who responded to my plea for documented ranges for transmitter
capabilities using various "enhancements" of the basic handheld marine
VHF radio. Their ideas are fodder for more testing, I believe.

I think we need field testing of the range achievable with some of the
various antenna configurations suggested.  If I can get my ham buddy
interested in tuning some antenna mods to optimize their fit to my VHF,
I think I'll go back to my "test bay" and repeat some of the range
testing I did two/three years ago.  Here's my short list.  Please email
me (not the list) with suggestions for other configurations and/or ways
to do the testing.

1. Off-the-shelf OEM rubber ducky -- what came with the radio.

2. Simple dipole suspended vertically (from a tree), coaxed to the VHF.

3. Quarter-wave whip.  (Or, should this be a half-wave whip?)

4. Simple (4 element?) directional antenna (a YAGI?), coaxed to the VHF.

Thanks.
-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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