Whats the best VHF aerial?

[dfox]

Ive noticed that lots of fishos experience problems with there marine radios on a regular basis.Ive had the jack with a few of the most common brands, and even thou there housed in a protected area of the boat they regularly play up. Seems the better i take care of them the more they pay me back by playing up! Even thou the current units are performing well (at the moment) ive decided to purchase one of the waterproof icom m402, heres my question, i currently have a 2.1meter gme vhf aerial on the boat, for the best performance is there another antenna i should look at? i see that the ic-m402 unit has a warning saying not to exceed a gain of 9 dBi. So im guessing a tall 9 dBi is the go, any suggestions ...foxy

[Heath]

The GME antenna you have on there at the moment will be fine. I have an iCOM M45 & my mate has the M402 with the same GME antenna. Both work great.

[-spiro-]

Foxy
I ended up buying the navman with the navman arial. You where comeing in load and clear on Saturday morning. I have been told by afew shops that height dosen't matter, that the base height is everything. Did you hear us chatting up there at the Banks?

[dfox]

Chris, i seem to have heard everyone. I listened in all day and although i was a long way from everyone no-one came through distorted.

[snappa]

dave
so why u changing...
i am in the process of buying a vhf radio also....

so what have u got now....

[Sportfish_5]

Dave - Get the pocket protector,calculator and tape measure out ;D

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/VHF.html

Cheers

Greg

[snappa]

so whats it all mean.......... ??? ??? ???

[Sportfish_5]

Pete - its technical sh!t - you dont get an answer from the boffins with that report ???

Umm Laymans version - I think mount the aerial as high as you can and get the biggest mofo aeriel you can then if you still cant hear clearly than something is wrong with the other guys set up ;D ;D ;D

Cheers

Greg

[-spiro-]

Dave i even spoke to outerskip down at Mud in the early morning. The only trouble i had was with Streaker. For some reason i couldn't talk to him untill he was half way across the bay??

[dfox]

Pete- ive had gme and uniden sets housed in protected custom casings for the last 17 years. When i get a new set i open it up and spray the internal components with a special spray i was given by a marine electronics bloke. I then seal the set and house them in there pretected housing. Now i use these sets alot and i tend to go threw a set every couple of years. Which in my view is not good enough for a marine product. I fish alot further out to sea then the average fisho (many times beyond 120km), so good comunication is extremely important. A set with a niggling problem gets chucked. I like the idea of a water proof set, so rather then wait for my current radio to play up,(and i know it will) i'l store it away as a back up and install the new one...foxy