VHF?

Audrey II

Audrey II

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Aug 5, 2008
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30499
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For the last few years I have had issues with my VHF, my friends could hear me but it's not always clear. The big problem was often when I was approaching a marina and calling for a slip they could not hear me at all I would end up calling on my phone or using my handheld.

This year I bought a new Garmin 200 unit and while I thought it was working great I had a similar problem this past week while traveling. I'm assuming I have an antenna issue. I wondering if there is a way to test the antenna with a meter, maybe it's just a bad connector or something I would really like to get this resolved asap. If I have to replace the antenna so be it but I would hate to replace it and still have the same problem.

All thoughts welcome.
 
It could also be the power supply. A radio uses much more power to transmit than to receive. One quick check would be to use the seatow repeater where you hear yourself and try high power (25w) and low power and see if there is a difference. If high power is more distorted that could be a sign of a power problem.
 
If you have a Bird 43 with a VHF slug that will work. A Telewave 25MHz to 1000MHz meter will work as well.
If you don't have access to these meters by the time you purchase a meter you might as well replace the connector first then try it, if that doesn't work just replace the complete antenna system.
I suggest trying your local SeaTow repeater 1st you will hear how it sounds and how you sound.
Bill
 
A huge problem similar to what you describe is people grabbing the mike wrong and placing the pinky finger over the small hole (that's the mike element) not the big round speaker. This will muffle your audio something serious it's also very intermittent depending on how your grab the mike each time.
Bill
 
Seatow responds just fine! What's weird is I have more trouble when I'm close to someone. I may just replace the antenna and not play games.

Bill what do you recommend I get? I don't want to break the bank but I want something that works!
 
Dave. My thought is to stand off of your marina and call the dock hands. Start on low power see if they copy. Then go to hi power see if they copy. It coud be you are over powering them. Now my next thought is the antenna is getting moisture and not working. Now this is just a guess. I had a problem with my ICOM and had to send it back because the squelch would never let a signal thru ICOM repaired at no cost.
 
I had the same issue with my last unit! I have no problems most of the time however it seems when I need it most people can't here me. I had taken to always having my handheld at the helm just in case this past week I did the same. I have a friend with a $145 West Marine special that is unbelievable load clear I thought he was running some sort of amp or something and my high end unit seems to work like crap! I would like to believe it's the antenna and that I didn't waste my money on the Garmin unit.
I'm sure it's set for US channels but I will double check just in case.
 
Reduce power when close to other people you are trying to communicate with Dave. It's real easy to overload inexpensive marine VHF radios. That's why they have a 1 watt and 25 watt power setting.
I doubt you need an antenna Dave. Some of the higher quality radio's may hear you fine other's may not when you are in close.
Bill
 
Is your antenna fully vertical? Is it mounted very high up or is it a large, say 18-21 foot model?
 
It's fully vertical and mounted on top of my highest point the radar arch. It is an 8' antenna it the large of the two the other is my Rogue.

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Dave close in communications could be done with a 50 ohm dummy load.
If you were not being heard or couldn't hear at any distance that might point to a bad antenna.
I prefer Digital Company VHF antennas. I have 3 VHF radio antennas a 4', 8' and a 16'. The 4 footer can be switched in place of the 16' VHF antenna if it were to break. I have a 2 position coaxial switch that I can manually operate to switch between the 2 antennas. The other 8' antenna feeds the 2nd Garmin VHF200. I have an external receive switching pre-amp (GasFET type device) made by AR2 it is on the Garmin VHF200 with the 16' antenna it helps me dig the weak ones out. The pre-amp can be switched out with a toggle switch. It automatically drops out when I transmit.
Bill
 
Dave, I had similar problems to what you describe. I changed the connector...fiddled with the radio and checked the power supply but problem persisted. Finally, I changed the antenna and now everything works fine. Funny thing is, I thought the antenna couldn't be the problem because it was just a few seasons old and looked as new as the day I bought it.
 
It wouldn't hurt to change the antenna, cable and connector out. They don't last forever and because they operate without a real ground plane they can create some strange problems that seem to defy logic.
You know what us radio guys say it's "FM"! Translation it's "F&&*ing Magic"!
Bill
 
I guessing the antenna is probably as old as the boat and that makes it 17 years old. The cable must be pushing 20' I have seem many if not most seem to come with 15' cables.

I ordered a new antenna this morning I hope this resolves any issues, I know it won't hurt!
 
Transmit on low power when close. Seen this many times.
 
I tried this and it didn't help at all, I dropped down to 1w and it still didn't help me.
 
Capt.Bill 1: Thanks for the link; I saved it to my "Boat Stuff" file on my computer. It's nice to have a source for information on the electronics and other systems on our boat. Hy
 
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