Mounting VHF Aerial

[Geoff_Atkinson]

I recently purchased a new VHF radio & aerial for my boat. A couple of people I have spoken with have told me not to mount the aerial on the hull of the boat but I have not been able to find anything in the instructions about it. It is going to be very difficult to mount it anywhere else. Is there anyone with any thoughts?

[Hagar]

Sea raider

Is your boat glass or alloy ? . Most aerials made these days ( like the GME etc. with the plastic swivel base mounting ) have a ground plane built into the aerial base and so do not need to make any sort of contact with the hull to work correctly . Mounting it as high as possible is desirable from my understanding . I can only think the advice you were given may have been related to some corrosion issue on an alloy hull . With most aerials only the mounting fastener screws are in contact with the hull - not the aerial itself . If yours is not like this they are not expensive but get the longest one that will fit . We have tradespeople here who may be better informed . ;) ;)

Chris

[Geoff_Atkinson]

Hi Chris,

My boat is an alloy Cuddy Cab with a full length canopy with an aluminium frame.

I can mount the aerial on the front of. one of canopies uprights, but that will mean that I wont be able to fold it down as the top of the canopy juts out past the frame.

The aerial is one of the GME ones with the plastic swivel base and is 2.5 metres long, so if I put it on the hull, the top of the aerial will still stick up above the canopy by about a half a metre. From what I gather, it is only the top of the aerial that does the transmitting and recieving. Is that correct?

Any help on this will be appreciated.

Cheers

Geoff

[Wear_the_fox_hat]

Sea Raider,
I'm not aware of the hull issue as I've seen them work in all different places. Just make sure you keep the aerial far enough away from other electronics/aerials as stated in the instructions.

Have fun,
WTFH

[Jeremy]

higher the better is desirable as transmission is line of sight. Also consider where the tip of the aerial will be when folded down for storage. People have lost eyes from walking into aerials.

Jeremy

[litenup]

SR, what's wrong with on the cuddy cabin? Use some Duralac around the fastenings to stop corrrosion. Can you fold it forward, or lay along deck when not using it? Cheers Pete

[Geoff_Atkinson]

G'day Pete,

The canopy top protudes out and covers the most of the cuddy, so if I do that, I cant put the aerial up because of the canopy. (I hope that makes sense).

I have decided to fit it to the side of the canopy itself and lay the aerial backwards along the piping frame that holds the canopy. It will be about 51/2 to 6 metres from the water to the tip, out of the way and easy to clip the tip to the canopy. It's nearly the perfect spot for it and when I get the canopy fabric replaced in the near future, I will have a mounting bracket welded to the frame. The only negative is that it will be a bastard to reach to put up and down, but hey, if that's my biggest problem in a days fishing, it'll be sweet!

Thanks everyone for your input.

Cheers

Geoff