New Antenna

[striperon]

I installed a t-top on my 1800. It had a 3' stainless whip on a nylon ratchet mount on the side of the console. I'm looking to put a new antenna on the t-top. I searched this site for discussions about antennas and read the recommendations. I have no experience other than the radio that is in this boat.

Questions: I am sometimes offshore, only in good weather, have been 20 miles or so. Should I be looking for an 8' antenna and mounting that atop the t-top? I have a nylon ratchet mount, but the 8' antenna recommendations are for the stainless steel ratchet mounts, will the nylon mount I have stand up?

Thanks,
Ron

 

[DaleH]

VHF works on line of sight, so for safety - yes, higher is better. I would go with a Shakespeare Galaxy XT-5225 from Jim @ BOE Marine, ballpark $105 or so, could have gone up. You can pay more and get less performance by buying another brand. The Shakespeare antennas have tested the best in many boating electronic tests.

And yes, buy a SS mount, just insulate it from the aluminum if mounting it directly. You can use rubber or even duct tape to insulate the base and put heatshrink on the bolts and use nylon washers between the SS nylok nut (or bolt head) and the aluminum base.

FWIW I have snapped one SS antenna mounts whilst offshore ... but plastic would have snapped in the 2st season!

 

[Megabyte]

Those 3' stainless loaded base antennas are meant to be mounted at the top of a sailboat mast.
I had one (a 3' stainless on a nylon mount) on my 17' Dusky and performance was abysmal.
There is a reason those antennas are mounted 30' to 40' in the air on a sailboat.

For best performance, get a quality 8' fiberglass antenna and put it on a stainless ratchet mount so you can lower it when trailering.
A 4' fiberglass antenna would be my second choice, but for best performance, consider an 8'.

Good luck!

 

[striperon]

Thanks for your help. I purchased a 5225-xt and a stainless steel 4187 mount today from Hamilton Marine here in Maine today. They have great prices and I buy almost everything marine I need there, except for Yamaha OEM parts.

 

[striperon]

I mounted the antenna on the T-top over the weekend and soldered on the PL-259 connector today. I have reception, listened to the weather channel for a few minutes. I am beyond happy with the Fishmaster T-top and accessories, plus their customer service is tops.

 

[Megabyte]

Looks great. :wink:
You'll be able to send and receive much better than before after this upgrade.

Edit: Just don't forget to stow it before trailering.

 

[warthog5]

Ha! You can get the weather channel damn near with no antenna.

So here's where the Digital brand antenna beats the Shakespeer........I've seen meters on both antennas. It's a toss up.


So your going down the road after coming out of the water.....WAP! what the hell was that? You pull over and see your new antenna broken in half due to hitting a tree limb.

So now you cut the PL connector off the Shakespeer and pull the cable back thru the rigging....This is after you have spent anothe $150 -$180 on a New antenna. Then you pull the new coax thru the rigging....Now you have to Solder a new connector on. Oh....and it was installed with those stupid stainless clam shells and filled with silicone.....That no one drills a big enough hole for, instead of using a Blue Seas Cables clam.

So it took you 3hrs to rerig a new antenna.....If you had a Digital and used the Blue Seas Cable Clam it would take you 45min.

Been there done that......Several times for customers.

Digital has a trick connector that just screws on and has a small connector that is installed at the factory....No connection problems.

Trailer boats are the ones that will have the most problems with broken antennas and forgetful owners.

My signature antenna is a Digital 529VB...Yes a Black one....And I've put a LOT of them on.