Hi, Dale on vega 1877. Since the question has been brought up about Amateur radio..... Which will be one of my projects....Any special grounding needed....My vega has what I am told is an old SSB ground on the starboard hull under the front part of the setee. It is basically a a square block of metal not sure of dimensions.Also would like idea on antennas. Do not really want to play a guessing game.....Any photos and ideas that have worked on a Vega would really be appreciated.Thank you,Dale N2QBX
Amateur Radio Questions..... Install
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- Start date
Dale:
That metal "SSB ground" is likely a sintered or porous bronze plate that is indeed intended to be a ground. The sintered or porous aspect is to provide lots of surface area. Hopefully it hasn\'t been painted.
I\'ve no interest in HF radio myself and have no recommendations. A website that is quite useful for automotive mobile stuff is KØBG.COM .
Alan,,, n4lbl,,,
That metal "SSB ground" is likely a sintered or porous bronze plate that is indeed intended to be a ground. The sintered or porous aspect is to provide lots of surface area. Hopefully it hasn\'t been painted.
I\'ve no interest in HF radio myself and have no recommendations. A website that is quite useful for automotive mobile stuff is KØBG.COM .
Alan,,, n4lbl,,,
I had a Kenwood HF transceiver on my 35 ft sloop. The ssb channels
the is used in the marine environemet were wired out so only ham
bands were working. The guy at the radio shop clipped the wire. I
bought a little SWR manually tuned meter. I after about a two
weeks could tune as fast as most could with their expensive
Automatic tuners. I had coincidered cutting the back stay and adding
insulators. Talked to one of the hams who suggested buying a whip
antenna mounted on a pole that looks like an VHF marine radio
antenna but is for HF. Most powerboats use them. I temporarily
mounted it on deck standing maybe 15 ft tall attached to the stern
push pit and the deck. I had thought I would mount it standing up on
the side of the mast to get it up high. I was told it was as good
standing on deck so I left it there then bought one of those under
water ground plates and it worked just fine. I got weather from
Herb in Canada most days from different places in the Bahamas
Probably 1500 or more miles. One evening I picked Up the sailboat.
Takutory rounding the cape of good Hope and carried on a
conversation for a good 30 minutes, I paid about $275 for the used
Radio I think about $150 for the Antenna, SWR meter cost me new I
think $75.00 I don't remember what the ground plate cost. I bought a
fair sized one about4" X 10inches. Not real cheap as I remember.
The systen was excellent for my purposes. I didn't have a ham
license because you had to learn code back then. But I still used
the ham side to listen in to the world wide beacons to figure out
what bands were working best. To give a feel for prices this was
around 1995. Doug
"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody
stands around reloading" -- Thomas Jefferson
the is used in the marine environemet were wired out so only ham
bands were working. The guy at the radio shop clipped the wire. I
bought a little SWR manually tuned meter. I after about a two
weeks could tune as fast as most could with their expensive
Automatic tuners. I had coincidered cutting the back stay and adding
insulators. Talked to one of the hams who suggested buying a whip
antenna mounted on a pole that looks like an VHF marine radio
antenna but is for HF. Most powerboats use them. I temporarily
mounted it on deck standing maybe 15 ft tall attached to the stern
push pit and the deck. I had thought I would mount it standing up on
the side of the mast to get it up high. I was told it was as good
standing on deck so I left it there then bought one of those under
water ground plates and it worked just fine. I got weather from
Herb in Canada most days from different places in the Bahamas
Probably 1500 or more miles. One evening I picked Up the sailboat.
Takutory rounding the cape of good Hope and carried on a
conversation for a good 30 minutes, I paid about $275 for the used
Radio I think about $150 for the Antenna, SWR meter cost me new I
think $75.00 I don't remember what the ground plate cost. I bought a
fair sized one about4" X 10inches. Not real cheap as I remember.
The systen was excellent for my purposes. I didn't have a ham
license because you had to learn code back then. But I still used
the ham side to listen in to the world wide beacons to figure out
what bands were working best. To give a feel for prices this was
around 1995. Doug
"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody
stands around reloading" -- Thomas Jefferson
Dale, Here something I have been thinking about. IF you get a ham
Licence It is against the law as far as I know to carry on a
conversation on the non ham bands with operators who are not hams.
If you get a set that has both ham and marine ssb frequensies. You
can talk to the boats who use ssb marine not as a ham but on a
marine ssb license. Most ssb operators on boats I don't think are
hams. Doug
--
"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody
stands around reloading" -- Thomas Jefferson
Licence It is against the law as far as I know to carry on a
conversation on the non ham bands with operators who are not hams.
If you get a set that has both ham and marine ssb frequensies. You
can talk to the boats who use ssb marine not as a ham but on a
marine ssb license. Most ssb operators on boats I don't think are
hams. Doug
--
"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody
stands around reloading" -- Thomas Jefferson
Hi Again all,Thank you for the replies regarding battery sizes and fitment, location etc. I will reply seperately with regard to that.Regarding amateur radio afloat:
Well my short term aim is to try both a whip mounted on the pushpit and a pseudo backstay made of a suitable wire attached temporarily to the topping lift. For grounding, it has been suggested that I use a trailing wire technique.
Most suitable radio's will have the -ve 12V rail common to the RF ground but it has been suggested to me that the sintered plate or other RF ground that you may use be DC isolated from the boat ground by perhaps several 1000pF capacitors in parallel. Antennas for VHF up operation of course is not a problem.
Operation of most amateur equipment on marine frequencies is illegal, perhaps rightly so. However in the case of an emergency, any form of communication may be justified. Similarly illegal is modifying marine HF radios to cover amateur bands (I understand that an Icom M700 retains its type approval when so modified). Under normal circumstances I would listen to the various HF maritime yachting nets if/when sailing offshore.
Geoff V1619#################################################Geoff Blake, G8GNZ JO01fq: Chelmsford, Essex, UKgeoff@... or melecerties@...
Using Linux: Ubuntu 11.04 on Intel or Debian on UltraSparcand Apple OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion on my Macbook Pro. Avoiding Micro$oft like the plague.#################################################
Well my short term aim is to try both a whip mounted on the pushpit and a pseudo backstay made of a suitable wire attached temporarily to the topping lift. For grounding, it has been suggested that I use a trailing wire technique.
Most suitable radio's will have the -ve 12V rail common to the RF ground but it has been suggested to me that the sintered plate or other RF ground that you may use be DC isolated from the boat ground by perhaps several 1000pF capacitors in parallel. Antennas for VHF up operation of course is not a problem.
Operation of most amateur equipment on marine frequencies is illegal, perhaps rightly so. However in the case of an emergency, any form of communication may be justified. Similarly illegal is modifying marine HF radios to cover amateur bands (I understand that an Icom M700 retains its type approval when so modified). Under normal circumstances I would listen to the various HF maritime yachting nets if/when sailing offshore.
Geoff V1619#################################################Geoff Blake, G8GNZ JO01fq: Chelmsford, Essex, UKgeoff@... or melecerties@...
Using Linux: Ubuntu 11.04 on Intel or Debian on UltraSparcand Apple OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion on my Macbook Pro. Avoiding Micro$oft like the plague.#################################################