VHF Radio interference

[Chris]

I have just fitted a V Tronics Rib Raider aerial to my RIB after the old SILVA wip broke at the base.

The old Aerial seemed to work well and I always had good reception however I am a little uncertain about the new RibRaider.

When out on Sunday playing in the Severn with MattH we tried a few tests and I headed away from him transmitting and receiving test messages on ch75 on low power (1Watt) to test the signal. I noticed that before I lost site of him about half a mile away I was starting to find the reception quite poor with a lot of static. I then found that if I switched off the engine I got a much clearer signal.

I then tried Bristol VTS on ch12 again on 1W and they said they could hear me loud and clear and I could hear them quite well.

So whats the SP with engine interference does it only kick in with a weak signal.

Is it Matts radio that is at fault perhaps. He certainly did not recieve radio traffic when we were in the lock whilst I did, again he is using a RibRaider.

[codprawn]

Could be all sorts of things - electronic equipment on board such as chart plotter etc but alternators can play havoc. It could be the new aerial is more sensative. And yes a weak signal is easily swamped.

[9D280]

'tis but a thought that if you swapped from one raider to a new one, I assume you used the same connector into the base? Is it worth removing it, cutting the wire back half an inch to get to the "clean" copper & making a fresh connection? I say that 'coz I guess if you broke the old raider, then there's every chance that water has got in via the top and started to corrode something.

[havener]

Worth checking the engine earth as well.