DSC Aerial

[Kantara]

I have a defunct DECCA and a new DSC radio. Does anyone know if I
can use the DECCA aerial as the DSC Channel 70 aerial or do I need a
specific one?



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[muchy_]

It all works through your VHF aerial. No need for seperate aerials.

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[Kantara]

The (rather poor) manual with my Skanti says you need two aerials - but it is interesting that the second socket on the set is blanked off

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[cliff]

It depends on the rig. If you have an Icom DS100 coupled to a 401E you need a separate antenna. If you an "all in one Beastie" then maybe 1 antenna is enough - READ THE MANUAL FOR YOUR RADIO - it will tell you if you need a separate aerial or not.

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[Oldhand]

Your Decca aerial is designed for reception down in the 100kHz area, VHF is around 150MHz thus your Decca aerial will be unsuitable.

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[JonBrooks]

The Skanti is a twin antenna system.
The second one is a DSC watch antenna.
There are some good stubby antenna on the market that will suit this job.

The second ons is for DSC RX only the main antenna will be used for all the VHF voice RX and TX and also for the DSC TX.

Hope that helps.

Regards

<hr width=100% size=1>Jon Brooks
Marine Dealer Manager
Icom UK Ltd.
01227 741741

 

[No1_Moose]

You don't need two, unless you want to keep a constant watch on Ch70 (GMDSS requirement I think)
I have put the second socket on our one but only because we already have 2 aerials.
The Skanti is a superb VHF, especially if you have a multi station system.

<hr width=100% size=1>I fully understand if you wish to ignore me!!!

 

[No1_Moose]

"The Skanti is a twin antenna system" Errm, well only if you want one with 2 aerials (you can get them with one, like our one)

<hr width=100% size=1>I fully understand if you wish to ignore me!!!

 

[No1_Moose]

So yours looks like this?

You can have the PL259 connector thingy put in, get a massive great hammer and whack it into the hole. The pointy bit on the connector needs to be soldered to the little hole on the PCB that you can see in the piccy below, sort of. I think Skanti also put one of the grey wires from the connector by this little hole to the other connector on the back of the radio, above the red ribbon thingy.

If you fry your VHF don't blame me, I am not 100% certain of the connections because our vhf with the 2nd connector is on the boat.

<hr width=100% size=1>I fully understand if you wish to ignore me!!!

 

[Kantara]

Thanks Moose.
I don't think I want to start soldering inside a VHF. Do I gather that it is OK to run the set without a second aerial? If so, why am I not getting any alarms? Well, that isn't quite true - the alarm has gone off twice, once in a Mayday situation, and once in a routine Coastguard Navigators notice. In both cases, I assumed that I was very close to a Coastguard Aerial and that the Skanti picked up the Channel 70 transmission internally

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[No1_Moose]

Yes, you can use it without a second aerial and it will pick up DSC messages like any other "pleasure" DSC VHF, however you will not pick any messages up while you are transmitting. The addition of the 2nd aerial means that you will pick up messages while transmitting a DSC call or a normal VHF call.



<hr width=100% size=1>I fully understand if you wish to ignore me!!!