Is it safe to operate a VHF radio without an arial connected ?

Most modern VHF's will have some protection against transmitting into no load so 'accidentally pressing the PTT shouldn't do any harm. But that doesn't mean you should actually do it all the time (or ever?). It would be like checking you can stop by using the ABS all the time. The system is there for emergencies, not for everyday use.

(Most sets have thus protection so that if your mast falls down with your vhf antenna on it, and you don't think and press the PTT button, you don't destroy the radio!)
 
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VicS said:
A tip

to avoid smart ass comments

If you can't spell aerial call it an antenna.


To just receive at home stick a bit of wire in the socket. Just dont press the PTT switch.

Photobucket is down at the moment... when its back I will post a design from an old PBO for an emergency aerial you can try

OR see this post http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...IY-emergency-VHF-aerial&p=2380292#post2380292
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Surely a smart ads would point out that an aerial antenna is one held aloft by a kite, balloon etc. and that you have a monopole whip.
 
prv said:
But inevitably, teenagers being teenagers

Pete
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Are you saying you've grown out of this since your teens? I certainly haven't, it's just the buttons I press have become gradually more expensive and complex :D
 
Boo2 said:
Hi,

Question as title : can anyone tell me if it safe to operate a VHF radio without an arial connected ? Obviously I won't receive anything, but my RO4800 radio and remote mic arrived today and I'd like to have a play before taking it down to the boat. The manual doesn't mention it but I read warnings in my model airplane days about burning out the output stages by operating transmitter with no arial attached and wondered if marine VHFs are similarly afflicted ?

Thanks,

Boo2
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nope.
 
Some antennas are antennae.
Some antennas are terrestrial, some are aerial.
Not all aerials are antennae.

Unwise, but not dangerous to transmit on a modern transceiver with any thing connected to the RF output socket.
 
MM5AHO said:
Some antennas are antennae.
Some antennas are terrestrial, some are aerial.
Not all aerials are antennae.

Unwise, but not dangerous to transmit on a modern transceiver with any thing connected to the RF output socket.
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The engineering plural always uses "s" - so antennas, computer mouses ....
 
prv said:
:p

Some colleagues and I once had cause to design and build a mockup nuclear power station control room for use by schoolchildren. It was quite sophisticated, driven by half a dozen PICs and a PC running some custom simulation software and requiring six operators at "mission control" style consoles with knobs, sliders, buttons, 7-seg displays, led bar graphs, plus various things displayed on a big screen at the front of the room. They had to work together to keep the power generation tracking the demand curve (of course, nuke stations don't really do that, but it would be pretty dull to just sit there supplying the base load :) ).

Anyway, among all the knobs and buttons, for amusement purposes we added one that they specifically should not press. It was clearly labelled so - we dressed it up as being a lamp test mode for the panel, certainly not to be used during live operation. What it did was flash all the lights and make the bar graphs and 7-segs chase their tails, like a fruit machine when nobody's playing it. Naturally this made it impossible for the team to keep things running smoothly for the twenty seconds or so that it lasted (though we silently inhibited all the really bad emergencies for the duration) - after they'd figured out what had happened, the rest of the team would typically round on whoever had pressed the "do not touch" button, as angry (pre-recorded) "video calls" from the National Grid came in to complain how far off the curve they were. But inevitably, teenagers being teenagers, nearly every group pressed it several more times during their simulator session :)

Pete
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Many years ago, in a new submarine being set to work in the shipyard, one of the engineering guys found a surplus switch fitted to the ship control panel in the control room. He made up and fitted a tally plate reading "Bye bye back aft". The MOD civilian overseer queried this and was told, straight faced, that it fired the explosive bolts that would detach the reactor compartment, machinery spaces etc from the front of the boat. Horrified, the overseer demanded that the switch be fitted with a locking cover to prevent inadvertent operation.....
 
Boo2 said:
Hi,

Question as title : can anyone tell me if it safe to operate a VHF radio without an aerial connected ? Obviously I won't receive anything, but my RO4800 radio and remote mic arrived today and I'd like to have a play before taking it down to the boat. The manual doesn't mention it but I read warnings in my model airplane days about burning out the output stages by operating transmitter with no aerial attached and wondered if marine VHFs are similarly afflicted ?

Thanks,

Boo2
Click to expand...

No, unless there is specific protection, and in any case a protection would not work for long, you will fry the transmitter's transistors within a few seconds with a cost of repair close to replacement cost.
 
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