VHF antenna installation

[warthog5]

after completion, turned it on, just to check receipt, on the weather channels

Around here you can pick up the weather channel's without even having a antenna connected.

Don't use that as a guage.

[oldbluesplayer]

Wart - I can imagine that's true, where you live, but I'm not there, and I'm about 60 miles from the coast, up here.

I don't have an SWR meter. I was careful with the solder joints on the antenna cable connector, and made sure I had a good power feed. Is there another way to test it, that you know of, or, as I said, the proof will be in the pudding this weekend when I get on the water.

Suggestions welcome.

Bill

[Blue_Heron]

Hi,
I've been a member for a few months, but mostly been lurking.

In my experience, problems in VHF antenna installation usually affect transmission way more than reception. If you can find a friend with a SWR meter and talk him into coming by for a beer, you'll be a step ahead when you get out on the water.

I have a friend who's a HAM and he's helped me tune antennas on both my boats. One thing he advised that kind of surprised me was to ground the antenna base (I mounted the antenna to a fiberglass poling platform). The improvement on the SWR meter was significant and so was the transmission distance on my next outing. I always thought the coaxial cable also served as a ground, but an independent ground certainly helped in my application.

Dave

[Bryan A.]

Question on grounding the base. Did you just run a wire to the negative on the battery or go to a special grounding location?

[oldbluesplayer]

Blue Heron -

I'll second the question on grounding the antenna base - How ?

Also - could you ask your Ham friend - I do have an old SWR meter from CB radio days - I just assumed that it was specific to CB, and not useable for VHF, but it's worth asking someone who knows this stuff for real.

thanks

Bill