Peter; Last April, Blue Water Sailing had a series of articles about installing SSB on a cruising boat. Since that is a project for my boat in the near future, I saved a digital copy of the articles. Perhaps I "saved" them too well, because it just took me over 1/2 hour to track them down on my laptop.
Anyway, the writer was enthusiastic about a GAM/McKin split backstay antenna as an alternative to using an insulated backstay. The antenna is a purpose built radio antenna contained in a sheath that attaches to your existing backstay without insulators. According to the information provided, it is more efficient than the stainless wire of your rig, easy to install, and less expensive than putting insulators in the backstay. The articles also endorsed using a KISS-SSB counterpoise instead of a "ground plane" on the exterior of the hull. Apparently that is what is recommended by Icom for its SSB tuners. A cruiser who passed through here a couple of months ago had what he called a "digital rope antenna". According to him it was a high gain antenna run inside what looked like a thick double braid line. His was the length of his mast, and was raised on a spare jib halyard and secured at the base of the mast. He didn't say what the "digital" part of the description meant, but I guess it could involve some sort of automatic tuner. It looked like a really nice setup, and the cruiser seemed very happy with it. Rick Brass Washington, NC -----Original Message----- From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Colomba Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 5:09 PM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Subject: Stus-List HAM radio on board Good day last October I made my ham radio licence. Whatever, hard stuff. Of cause my main idea is to bring the ham radio onto Colomba (C&C34) and I`m wondering ho to install the antenna. Perhaps someone had same idea and some solutions. _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com CnC-List@cnc-list.com
