Setting up VHF radio at home

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shoc

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I'd like to setup a VHF radio at home -- I live beside the coast.

My house has RG6 coaxial cable from the attic to the utility room and from there to most rooms in the house...is RG6 suitable for VHF aerial?

I don't want to install an aerial on the outside so if I put the aerial in the attic would that drastically reduce reception? its a tiled roof and will be about 7-8 metres high

I'll be removing the mic from the radio to prevent any transmitting and I'll probably buy a secondhand set off ebay

Thanks ;)
 
RG6 will work, it's a 75ohm cable for rf reception. It might have a bit of attenuation at vhf frequency, as it is supposedly optimised for tv and satellite (not that close to each other on the frequency spectrum), but you aren't in a life critical safety situation listening ashore.
not sure about what the vhf licencing legislation says about shore stations, even without a transmit function though, it's a long time since my src and I didn't pay attention to that bit.
 
If you not planning to transmit then should not be any problems, you may find it better to mount of a steel plate. RG6 is not 50 ohm so don’t use for transmit
 
RG 6 cable is a 75 ohm cable when ideally you need 50 ohm cable. However for what you want it does not matter. Disconnect the cables to other rooms.
The antenna itself will have some short comings but should be ok under tiles. You can make an antenna from a piece of rod or wire 17 inches long. Connect the the centre of the coax to this rod which must be vertical. From the shield at the exit of the coax atatch 4 pieces of 17 inch long wire that can droop down from the end of the coax. These make a ground plane. The whiole hoisted as high as possible and clear of any conductors. I think you will find it works ok on receive. ol'will
 
Unless you already have an old VHF knocking around, could be worth considering just buying a cheap scanner.
No faffing installing aerial, no faffing with cobbling up a 12v supply for vhf , be it an old car battery or of buying a 12v PSU.
As for range, suspect that as you are only receiving, the difference between an aerial in your coastal room at 20-30 metres ASL ? and 7 metres higher in your loft is going to amount to nada regards range., with scanner you can listen to CH O and to both sides of conversation on Duplex channels.
The scanner could also be positioned in the most comfortable room in the house as well, not banned to the gulag of the utility room.
My handheld scanner can easily receive signals from London VTS over 30 miles away.
 
I have a pad on the coast, when i tried it a few years back i could receive simply connecting to the tv Ariel, but be very careful if you transmit, it is an offense, we tried to get a shorebased licence for our sea fishing club and was refused, even for safety reasons, there are three shore based clubs here, they have all been refused, we got around it of course, but it is frowned upon, probably because of malicious hoax calls.
 
shoc said:
I'd like to setup a VHF radio at home -- I live beside the coast.

My house has RG6 coaxial cable from the attic to the utility room and from there to most rooms in the house...is RG6 suitable for VHF aerial?

I don't want to install an aerial on the outside so if I put the aerial in the attic would that drastically reduce reception? its a tiled roof and will be about 7-8 metres high

I'll be removing the mic from the radio to prevent any transmitting and I'll probably buy a secondhand set off ebay

Thanks ;)
Click to expand...
I've tried mine at home ( mid Kent) and have been able to hear ships in and around the Thames estuary ( and in the old days one of the coast radio stations ) with just a short length of wire plugged into the aerial socket.

Mine will not work without the microphone . It is one designed to also use a telephone handset and when fist mike is unplugged the loudspeaker is disconnected. I bought a microphone plug, linked two pins to reconnect the loudspeaker and use that as a dummy microphone.

A lot of modern radios have all the controls on the mike ... You are not likely to be able to use one of those without the mike

The novelty soon wears off but It was interesting listening to one guy working to get a car transporter somewhere back into service. Trouble was he',d not managed to finish what he was doing before the ship sailed to Rotterdam to pick up a load of cars and he had to explain to his missus why he was heading for the Continent instead of coming home
 
I thought we are only allowed to listen to broadcasts meant for us personally, or our vessel. Plus broadcasts intended for everyone, eg All Ships, CG shipping forecast, etc?
Theoretically, private conversations, even on open channels, are verboten IIRC.

I'm not telling you what you should do, I have been using scanners etc since I was at school, and used to listen to any and everything. Police, mobile phones, whatever.

There's a big difference between the law and what you can get away with.

I second the suggestion of a scanner, marine VHF gets dull fairly quickly..
 
The Baefeng UV5r is a good option as it can be used quite legally as a scanner to monitor all the marine frequencies including channel 0 and many others including licence free PMR.
It should and can be programmed to receive only if you do not have amateur licence.
You can connect it an external antenna if you wish.
I have found the sensitivity on receive is nearly as good as my main boat vhf despite the height advantage of a MH antenna.

It has also become much easier to gain the foundation licence should you wish to actually speak rather than lurk. I remain a lurker for now.
 
You might consider a Software Defined Radio (SDR) receiver. It covers pretty much anything from HF (aka SSB) to UHF including broadcast and the various data services as well.

SDRPlay is the one I have, but there are loads.
 
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