Best roof antenna for a Marine Radio

[JohnScanner01]

Hello everyone!
One of these days when I dig up some extra money, I'm going to purchase my self a good Standard Horizon Marine Radio for the nice shack here. I wanted to ask if there was a specific antenna that I should get. I live (to my knowledge) no where near water. I have two houses, one in Sayville, (where this setup will be) and my other house is in Westbury.
Being that I travel alot, I'll be transferring the radio from the house to my car. The car is a whole different story though.


The question- What is the best antenna that I can mount out side that will get extraordinary reception on the VHF band without costing me my body parts? My budget is under $70, the radio alone will cost me tons of money, so I can't spend lots of money for the antenna install. It's going on the porch out side, with my other antenna's, discone, etc. Thanks everyone!

 

[Al42]

With your constraints, a homebrew 1/4 wave groundplane. Cost - around $10.

Or go to a marine store (I can point you to one in Pt. Jeff, but not in Sayville or Westbury) and price regular marine antennas and laydown mounts. If you can squeeze out a little more money you may be able to do it that way.

You are aware that transmitting from land (house or car) is illegal unless your name is Uncle Sam, right, Sam?

 

[Hoofy]

John
How handy are you at building things. The 1/4 wave ground plane is easy but has no gain. A copper J-pole would be a better option and could give you up to 3db gain, or you could build a flexible j-pole out of the old style 300ohm TV lead in wire and put it in a peice of 1/2 in pvc pipe for rigidity (is that a word)????? Remember that theoretically every 3db of gain doubles your effective signal.

Hoofy

 

[seamusg]

With your constraints, a homebrew 1/4 wave groundplane. Cost - around $10.

Or go to a marine store (I can point you to one in Pt. Jeff, but not in Sayville or Westbury) and price regular marine antennas and laydown mounts. If you can squeeze out a little more money you may be able to do it that way.

You are aware that transmitting from land (house or car) is illegal unless your name is Uncle Sam, right, Sam?

If you have a legal reason to have a land based station, you can get a license. There are a few where I live.

 

[JohnScanner01]

If you have a legal reason to have a land based station, you can get a license. There are a few where I live.

I'll worry about it being legal, or illegal. I'd just be interested in an answer to my question. In which my question was answered-and it several different ways too.

Al, exactly how much money would I have to dig up for that second choice that you suggested? And I'm not sure I know what I J Pole is either. If you can be more discripive, also, please-no fancy-shmancy languge such as db. No idea what that is. Heh. Thanks everyone!

 

[Hoofy]

John,
Try Google search for j pole. There is a ton of info and calculators to give you exact demensions for the antenna. db stands for decibels. If you had a 0db gain antenna and you received a signal that was half scale on your signal strength meter then an antenna in the same location with 3db gain should give a full scale reading on your meter.

Hoofy

 

[CapnJon]

If you don't want to make one then go to shakespeare.com and check out their marine vhf antenna's. I have a nice 8 footer on my tower and I'm 15 miles from Lake Superior yet talk out close to 50 miles offshore at times. I hear the North shore of Lk Superior all the time...Also a lot of the bear hunters that run dogs use marine radio's. I wouldn't worry about the other "Sam" he's too busy keeping tab's on Howard Stern! Ha! It is also a great place to talk instead of CB radio and more powerful at that.

 

[Grog]

Dear God, Marine radio is becoming the new CB

 

[JohnScanner01]

Ok, I'll take some notes.. Thanks for the help everyone..

Grog,

thank you for your "help" too in the matter.

 

[Grog]

No offence, as I don't know (or care) what you want to hook up a marine radio for.

The comments about people using marine radios for hunting just made me cringe. Just because someone is using 5 watts in the woods does not mean that they are not interfiering without knowing it.

Case in point, there is a USCG AUX repeater in my area that repeats traffic from several CG freqs. If someone was using one of the freqs, they could be heard 40 miles away without even knowing it.

Plus it's against the law, and MURS/FRS/GMRS is there for that reason.

 

[Grog]

Oh, I'd say to build a J-pole A very easy to build, and cheap antenna.

 

[Hoofy]

CapnJon,
In our neck of the woods we actually turn in people we find operating illegally. The bear hunters don't use marine radios over here anymore. You don't have to be caught by the FCC. There are hams around who make recordings and submit the evidence to the FCC.

Hoofy