Masthead VHF aerial replacement

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Norfolknick

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Not near enough to my boat :-( which is at Gosport
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My boat is currently on a swinging mooring in Poole Harbour and a ****e hawk has somehow managed to snap my windex/VHF aerial right off my the top of the mast. Not being a particularly skilled sparky I was hoping to find someone who could scale the mast to fit the replacement but I have been quoted some crazy prices by one of the local marina teams.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of fitting VHF aerials such that they could advise how complex a task it actually is? I appreciate that it does mean working at the very top of the mast but with a decent bosun's chair and a quiet day I am more than happy working at height. Any advice most welcome or indeed recommendations for someone who might be willing to help me out at a reasonable price?

Many thanks indeed!
 
You are probably going to need a couple of trips up the mast. First one to find what size the existing one is and I am talking about the antenna base thread diameter because they are different. Then you can source a replacement.

Just been through this saga and chose one of the Metz from Salty John of this priory who comes strongly recommended as does his kit.

http://www.saltyjohn.co.uk/metzmantavtechspec.htm

What you might find as I did the antenna base thread is a different diameter to the existing bracket. The choice was either drill out the old screws because after years at the top of the mast they wouldn't come out or fit another bracket. Youboat Chandlers in Gosport had the right size bracket for the Metz antenna. I will take the old bracket off next time the mast is down.

If you are going to replace the antenna, give serious consideration to changing the coax at the same time. Salty John does a 20m length of RG8x with plugs which is much better quality and offers better performance over the cheap stuff that antennas come with in the chandlers. Its not about range, but about the quality of signal at range so you can understand what is being said.

I did 3 trips up the mast working out what to do and then called in Brian a rigger from Endeavour Quay to help finish the job. The rate was very reasonable so might even pay to move the boat back to Gosport to have it done.

http://kiwimarine.co.uk/

Feeding a new coax cable down the mast is a two man job as one feeds and the other needs to gently pull the messenger line. Also I went directly from antenna to VHF without any breaks in the coax at the mast base. If the mast ever needs coming down then I will either put a join in then or replace the coax cable gain if its getting on a bit.
 
Last edited:
Norfolknick said:
My boat is currently on a swinging mooring in Poole Harbour and a ****e hawk has somehow managed to snap my windex/VHF aerial right off my the top of the mast. Not being a particularly skilled sparky I was hoping to find someone who could scale the mast to fit the replacement but I have been quoted some crazy prices by one of the local marina teams.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of fitting VHF aerials such that they could advise how complex a task it actually is? I appreciate that it does mean working at the very top of the mast but with a decent bosun's chair and a quiet day I am more than happy working at height. Any advice most welcome or indeed recommendations for someone who might be willing to help me out at a reasonable price?

Many thanks indeed!
Click to expand...


VHF aerials are not a marine exclusive item, try a local electronics or 4 wheel drive outlet, anything that contains the word 'Marine' can be well overpriced.

Good luck and fair winds. :)
 
"VHF aerials are not a marine exclusive item, try a local electronics or 4 wheel drive outlet, anything that contains the word 'Marine' can be well overpriced."

VHF is specified as 30 to 300 MHz. Marine VHF is a small part of that and antennas are fairly frequency specific.
AIS antennas are slightly different from Marine VHF ones ( but personally I am sceptical).
Broadcast VHF ones are definitely not suitable
Amateur 144-146 MHz ones are close but not close enough for good performance

Which ones available from "local electronics or 4 wheel drive outlet," are you suggesting?

The wrong VHF antenna/aerial will 'work', 6 inches of wire will 'work', both very badly.
 
The other thing to bear in mind is that the VHF cable may be bundled with other cables meaning they will all have to be pulled out which may make things difficult
 
I replaced my VHF aerial and windex in the winter and the complete cable ,but my mast was down and obviously it was easier than at the top of the mast.The bracket was slightly different so I had to unscrew the whole bracket ,but used the same holes with slightly bigger screws.It was only my hawk windex bit that was broken and that was about £27 to buy, whereas a complete windex and aerial with 20m of cable was £65. As the mast was down for new rigging it was a no brainer as the bottom of the aerial base had a crack in it as well.Depending on the age of your aerial you may find that you can use the existing bracket. If so the aerial is attached with a large nylon nut to the bracket and the cable is a push fit connection into the bottom of the base of the aerial.You will not know this until you have been to the top of the mast of course and unscrewed the aerial and tried ti fit the new one to the existing base.
Anyway good luck.
 
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