Edge connectors in computers are electro-plated gold - real thin. Silver and nickel oxidize, gold does not. Shakespeare offers a range of connectors that are gold-plated and don't cost us that much more for the few connectors that we use. Shakespeare offers three types of tin-plated coax, although I have no idea where it is made. Same for ANCOR. It just tells us that a major manufacturer thinks there is a marine market for low loss, extra low loss, and soupy-dupey low loss coax. For as long as I can remember, Belden and Amphenol have been synonymous with quality.
The wattage radiated from the antenna varies owing to multiple factors. One factor is the type of coax. Is it significant at extreme range? Maybe. When are you out of reach of fellow boaters and local CG stations - at extreme range. On my boats I have tried to minimize known sources of signal loss: number of connectors, quality of installing those connectors, volt/amps delivered to the radio, positioning of antenna, type of antenna, and quality of coax. On the Chesapeake Bay, my signal most often got through and I heard distress calls the CG missed. I relayed for CG Station Annapolis many times. Of course, the CG has an antenna and amplifier on the Bay bridge which can be used in emergencies and rules! (It is activated by landline from Baltimore.) The only factor not mentioned in this discussion is competing for the airwaves with other VHF stations. It is sad but true that on weekends, VHF traffic is so great that you are lucky to get through on 16 and some of the ship-to-ship channels. Empirically, I have only one measured experience with the effect of outputting higher wattage than other stations. I once had an old ICOM whose final output, out-of-the-box, produced 30 watts measured by a Bird meter and a technician sworn to secrecy. Those additional 5 watts gave that radio dominance over all others. That radio was NOT the source of the excellent signal described in the previous paragraph, but simply cited to demonstrate that 20% more wattage makes a very big difference. The radio used to legally achieve an excellent signal was a commercial-grade ICOM 126. Ron Rogers -----Original Message----- From: Jim Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 10:53 AM Oh and do use silver plated connectors (not nickel). I've seen a few gold plated connectors, but they are serious overkill. Be sure to seal all coax connectors well, at least the ones exposed to the weather or in the bilge. Someone mentioned type N connectors. Not necessary. The "UHF" connectors, PL-259, SO-259 work just fine. _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
