Hopefully, someone else can remind us, but the Metz (excellent choice) may have "a designed dead short to ground" in this case the mast. That's what a tech told me. The SWR for my Metz, atop a 52' mast with no intervening break in mil spec RG8U was 1:1 occasioning that tech's remark. Good is anywhere between 1.5:1 and 1:1. In *theory* coax that old isn't any good anymore. The default for most installs these days is tinned RG8X. Some advocate a newer cable: RG213 which is supposedly lower loss. My personal opinion is that a tinned shield is more important than type. Soldered terminations should be used. At the masthead, I used silicone, shrink tubing, and a self-sticking silicone tape. Nothing got through in 6 years. Today, I'd use black shrink tubing lined with adhesive and protected with rigging wrap as a sun shield.
I had an outstanding signal surpassing all other boats. Part of that was delivering maximum voltage to the VHF. Some brands are much more tolerant of low voltage than others. Icom is good in that respect. "Practical Sailor" has periodic reviews of VHFs and is worth checking as sometimes there are surprises. Good luck and keep us posted, Ron From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Flying Pig Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 9:23 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] FW: VHF ant ----- Original Message ----- From: Ron Rogers <mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 7:55 PM Subject: [Liveaboard] FW: VHF ant Have you done continuity check on mast coax/antenna? You might find out if the connectors are good. What brand and type of antenna is at masthead? Some can antennas ground differently. You would also get some information from a cheap SWR meter. Ron Rogers It's a metz, and the replacement I have is also. Having proven the radio, I'll next attack the antenna, that being the simplest (and from the looks of the one upstairs, the most suspicious of the elements). I'm not sure, but I MAY have a SWR, but I'm only familiar with what to look for in HAM applications - what's the likely number(s) to look for? Fortunately, I have a few weeks before leaving to go back to the states, and will be assembling a list of all I need to buy. The helm radio is toast; I stole the leads from it and made up the power connection to the suspicious radio. Not mounted up there, just hanging by the antenna line, and the power is just bolted up, but it proved that the radio itself wasn't the problem.
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