Antenna
2 seasons ago, my marine VHF antenna took a direct lightening hit and was vaporized (the coax and radio ruined as well). I replaced the antenna with a GAM SS2 Masthead VHF Antenna (found on Sailnet.com). I chose GAM because it had the best gain of the antennas I looked at. Gain is a comparison of how the antenna performs over another kind of antenna. All Gain figures are supposed to use the same type of comparitive antenna so that this figure has meaning from one manufacturer to another. As a GENERAL rule, the higher the gain number, the 'stronger' your signal is, and theoreticly, the farther your signal will travel. Don't forget we are talking vhf and the distance of signal travel under the best of circumstances is limited. So we are not talking hundreds of miles here. As for coax, I replaced my melted coax with marine grade RG8X. In theory, if I had used the much heavier/thicker RG8, more of my transmitter's output would reach the antenna, but the cost, and the unwieldy nature of the heavier coax makes it impractical, at least for me. Some of your transmitter's energy is absorbed by the coax. The longer the length of coax you use between your antenna and the radio the greater the loss. This is why you should always route you coax along the shortest possible path. Generally coax runs under 100' will represent a small loss of power to the antenna. The farther you go over 100' the more your coax will 'absorb' your transmitted signal and leave less and less power at the antenna for actual communication. There are also other reasons for keeping coax at or under 100', but it all has to do with the overall performance of your radio, the coax and the antenna as a system. In the end, just about any VHF masthead style antenna will perform more or less the same. I recommend using RG8X marine grade coax, which can be found at West Marine or Boat US retail stores.
