Flimsy NASA Navtex Weatherman aerials brackets

catmandoo

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Flimsy NASA Navtex Weatherman aerials brackets

I have had problems with the flimsy plastic brackets used to attach these items on to the boat and in both cases the bracket has broken at the angle where it is supposed to go from horizontal to vertical . Totally unsatisfactory . I now attach them to the standing riggin with cable ties .

Any one got a better solution ?
 
Re: Flimsy NASA Navtex Weatherman aerials brackets

As my boat has a hard top roof to the cockpit , I'm putting an aerial straight on that , through the grp
 
Re: Flimsy NASA Navtex Weatherman aerials brackets

After my Nasa Navtex ariel bracket snapped off after the lightest of touches, I started noticing that just about half of the ones you see around have suffered the same fate and have had have to be taped-up and generally bodged back together again. It seems to me that these flimsy little plastic brackets were never designed to put up with being mounted outside, but were originally intended to be mounted on bulkheads internally. In fact Nasa will tell you that the Navtex ariel will work perfectly well mounted inside. However the installation instructions that come with it imply that it should be mounted outside. It seems to me that the brief given to whoever wrote the handbook was not the same as that given to whever designed the woefully inadequate little plastic bracket.
Having parted with another 20 + quid for a new ariel I took Nasa's advice and mounted it out of harmsway as high up on a bulkhead as I could get it; and guess what - it now hardly works at all.
 
Re: Flimsy NASA Navtex Weatherman aerials brackets

I had to fit a new ariel rather than refit the broken one because the full story is actually worse than I told it (I didn't want it to seem too much of a sob story) When the ariel snapped off, it hung upside down on its wire for a time and promptly filled up with rain water which ruined the internal electronics.
 
Re: Flimsy NASA Navtex Weatherman aerials brackets

They are active aerials. £20 is about the going rate.

When I fitted my tv aerial I took mine down from the masthead. Every time I showed a photo someone on here would chip in that it doesn't need to be up there, it WILL work perfickly well on the push-pit.

Since moving to the pushpit, I snapped the bracket and have not received a single broadcast, TOME and others Grrrr.

Fixing it is easy, just unscrew the cable grip and add an L shaped bracket. I just have to find a clean site now so I can get navtex again, on the mast I was getting France and Belgian broadcasts, now nothing, grrr again, last time I listen to this forum /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
Re: Flimsy NASA Navtex Weatherman aerials brackets

Hi Jools , e mail me please , the ones I've got need testing , I 'm finding it hard to take a pic of one so if you let me have your address I'll send you one , let me know what you think to them , Dave
 
Re: Flimsy NASA Navtex Weatherman aerials brackets

Had to Araldite mine and that broke too.

Now have a metal bracket, bodged up in the shed, and a tall pole at the back of the boat so it is above people's natural "grabbing" height.

So far, it has stayed in one piece.

But 'Flimsy' it is.
 
Re: Flimsy NASA Navtex Weatherman aerials brackets

When mine broke I cable tied it high up (i.e. above the lid) in cockpit locker. Seems to work fine still. I guess I may ahve lost a little bit of range - but can't say I'ev noticed
 
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