Not me!The problem with splitters is commonly that they fail eventually, some sooner but inevitably they can and will fail. The problem is exacerbated by the fact it is not apparent when they fail.
Do you really want to trust your ‘lifeline’ to a crap shoot?
I know my repeated warnings are getting annoying but please understand it is a valid concern which motivates me to do this.I bought a Vesper Marine AIS, splitter, and tuned antenna.
Install was simple. Splitter is powered.
On failure it cuts out and passes VHF signal by default. If no signal is getting out it is a 30 second effort to remove the antenna coax connection and attach it directly to back of radio. All is backed up be a VHF hand held which I have attached to my person while sailing.
3 years no issues.
The typical loss expected from two common manufacturer splitters is depicted in the picture below:Thank you Don.
Help me understand the point failure.
Power loss to the splitter appears to be the prime issue. If water gets to the unit it is toast. But at that point the decks are awash.
A short in the splitter could induce failure. Suspect it might also fuse the internal wiring. It could at that point I suspect block the VHF signal. I would anticipate smoke and burnt smell at the Nav station.
Would that not be a time to remove the coax connection to the splitter and attach the antenna directly to the vhf radio?
An advantage of this configuration is I have one antenna on the mast. There are no ancillary connections to degrade the signal between the radio and antenna. The reported VWSR is <2:1 good.
I understand the concept of singular equipment on boats versus fully integrated systems.
I’d like to more clearly understand your observations. I’m learning new things every day.
Please understand I’m not being critical. I’m only expressing an opinion based on decades of experience.I have the glomex and have vesper AIS ,am/fm radio
and have had no problems whatsoever picking up targets miles away in other harbors ,nor any problems transmitting or receiving radio calls miles away .glomax states their splitter is twice as powerful as competitor
rated at 100 watts and going to there spec's on their site I could find no reference to db loss of 50% . They do have a 15db amp to reduce loss.To each their own ,if they were so bad why would they even make them period. Don't install one then. I'm quite happy.Also it depends on cable ,the cable I'm running has 50% less loss than regular , rg213 ,its like a hose