Handheld V.H.F ?

[The Dock]

Looking for some advice on handheld V.H.F. Cruising about 30 mile range from land in Southern Ireland. What range , price , reliability and availability? Can i make use of aerial i have fitted already for old V.H.F (faulty)?

[SeaSkills]

At that range, I'd want a fixed set, and an antenna installed as high as I could get it. You're pretty much at the extreme range of contact to shore by VHF, and I think you would be very lucky indeed to manage with a handheld

[BogMonster]

Could always buy a stepladder

I agree, I'd be wanting a fixed set and a big aerial.

[willk]

As pointed out (more diplomatically) by SeaSkills - better to assume that even the best fixed VHF will not give you ship to shore at that range. Not intending to sound rude here, but if you're even thinking about being out there (30Nms) then you probably should be upgrading your radio skillset first - not your radio. There is a great one day course being run all over the country - easy and costs about €80-100.

Having said all that... if you should find any wee parcels bobbing about out there, snag one for me, I'm feeling a bit low today

[m chappelow]

you could use the existing antenni and you might get a bit of gain but with a boat low in the water you would be lucky to get more than a few miles even less with lumpy sea with the hand held , they only make them to 5 watts as a fixed set goes up to 25 watts, a lot of hand helds might say they give out 5 watts but with most your lucky to get 3 or 4 watts max even less if the batterys going down .

[Rogue Wave]

i believe a portable wont have enough whoompf to drive a large antenna properly.

[Jon Brooks]

Rogue is right.

A hand held in a large external antenna will have much much better range on RX but the TX will not be as good as you think.

For every 10m of co-ax cable you get 1dB loss, for every connector in line you get 1dB loss, most of the times you add an external antenna to a hand held you end up with a connector and an adaptor on the radio so maybe 2-3dB loss.

3dB loss= halfing your power output

cheers

[JSP]

Originally Posted by Jon Brooks

Rogue is right.

A hand held in a large external antenna will have much much better range on RX but the TX will not be as good as you think.

For every 10m of co-ax cable you get 1dB loss, for every connector in line you get 1dB loss, most of the times you add an external antenna to a hand held you end up with a connector and an adaptor on the radio so maybe 2-3dB loss.

3dB loss= halfing your power output

cheers

Was just about to start a thread asking about how much loss you get from longer Cable. Don't need to now, cheers Jon