Help please-aerial for radio casette

[mark]

The radio casette aerial on my boat was fitted (by previous owner!) near to the stern cleat and - you've guessed it - the thing broke in two.

I need to fit a new one somewhere more sensible - any suggestions ? (I don't fancy going up the mast if I can aviod it)Can you get a marine aerial for a radio casette player or does everyone use the ones you can get in Halfords which are designed to go on the wing of a car ?

Many thanks, Mark.

 

[philip_stevens]

Mark,
Just get one of the rubber-ducky type auto aerials (Halfords or auto shop), and have it inside the cabin - as mine is. Its been inside for five years and picks up just about all I want it to. Try to make sure it sits upright, although it doesn't loose much reception gain if it lies down. But upright slightly improves reception.

If you have a 200khz echo sounder, you will hear it on long wave Radio 4, but not on VHF-FM.

Regards,
Philip

 

[mica]

We use an ordinary car aerial, and it is even hidden behind the panelling. Works fine.

 

[philip_stevens]

Mark,
I should have added to my post, that I intend to fit my rubber-ducky aerial inside my old Navstar Decca aerial tube. I won't need the active parts of it, and the co-ax already goes back to the navigation panel. This is my project.

regards,
Philip

 

[Guest]

Re: aerial for radio casette

Have you tried hooking your radio coax cable to one of the through bolts on you fixed rails? Works fine on my boat but for the feedback of the fluro light on AM band, but great on FM and needless to say no problem at all when playing tapes. Worth a try. Happy listening………Old Salt.

 

[kdf]

You can also get a splitter that allows you to use your masthead VHF antenna as your VHF plus your am/fm antenna . Not sure what the signal loss (if any) would be on the VHF. Cost is around £40.

 

[colinroybarrett]

Decca feeder cable, not low-loss?

If the Decca antennae was the short candle-stick variety, you might find that the feeder co-ax is not of the right frequency for this, there was a DC feed to the antennae and the down-lead probably had a built-in amplifier running at a fairly low frequency etc. Just a thought (however ANY aerial is better than none, so it’ll probably work fine!)

We had a Blaupunkt up in the bow of an earlier boat, I fixed the inner part of the co-ax to one of the Pulpit bolts, worked a treat. Some of these bodges are great, even the alloy curtain rail works reasonably well, under some circumstances. Well worth trying a few variants out, before going to the bother of drilling holes/mounting etc.

CRB

 

[philip_stevens]

Re: Decca feeder cable, not low-loss?

The Decca aerial was from the old Navstar 2000D. I've not checked the coding on the coax, but took the top off the aerail today, and disconnected the aerial pc/amplifier assembly. The coax went straight back to the Decca with no other component in the run. As you say, it might work. So I have fitted an aerial inside the tube. 34 inches of folded flat narrow thin metal, connected to the centre of the coax via a .0001mF capacitor. This was already in another antique car aerial plastic box. I'm going to give it a try this w/e coming. I'll let you know if it works!!

regards,
Philip

 

[Guest]

I've fitted a Shakespear aerial splitter which ties into the VHF co-axial cable- it works fine, far better than a car aerial stuck behind the instrument panel which is what was fitted before.
It is more expensive though,about £40 I think.

Wully

 

[philip_stevens]

Re: Decca feeder cable, not low-loss?

Colin,
I fitted my modified Decca aerial this afternoon, and reception from a distant station was better than using the rubber-duck aerial below deck. I tuned into Atlantic 252 from Ireland and it was better. I also had Radio 2 on FM from two different transmitters, and both were better. I only had to replace the Decca BNC plug with an auto aerial plug. I forgot to check the coax type, but at a glance it looked the same as was on the car aerial.

I am not sure if the .001 capacitor was micro, nano or pica farads. And as it is now fitted, I am loathe to remove it to open it up to find out. I don't think the capacitor is absolutely necessary as the rubber-ducky aerial didn't have one.

At least I now know it works. The half inch wide thin metal strip was 36inches long, and the aerial and screen were soldered on at each end, one inch from the ends - at 34inches. The diode was fitted between coax centre and one end of the metal strip, and the screen was soldered to the other end of the metal strip.

regards,
Philip<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by philip_stevens on Sat Jun 9 22:07:23 2001 (server time).</FONT></P>