VHF Aerials

[ChrisKaye]

Been thinking about a new VHF 2.4metre aerial from Glomex. Now Ive seen they have one at around £40 (classic)and another at £80 (professional) anyone have any experience of these and is it worth the extra for the professional ?

 

[steverow]

Ive got a couple of glomex 2.4m antenae mounted either side of the flybridge.
They do what it says on the can.
Basically its a loaded full wave colinear antenna...not electrically special but quite robust.
I think the extra "pro" version includes stainless mount. The plastic ones seem robust enough to me, and have already survived 100mph winds in the marina last year.

Steve.

 

[ChrisKaye]

Thanks steve

 

[oldgit]

The extra cost will be in the construction on the antenna.All you will be buying in either case will be a piece of thin wire held up in the air by a tube of grp.Actually their may also be inside somewhere one weeny little capacitor lurking.
It is this which is prob the most costly item in the whole assembly,prob cost about 50p per hundred.

 

[Hurricane]

Yep - bought one last year.
As I said on another thread - I set up a base station last year to run a catamaran race round the Isle of Wight.
I bought a cheap Cobra VHF base station and a 2.4m Glomex antenna. The whole lot was mounted on a 60 foot mast at Calshot and gave us coverage round the whole of the island.
In the past, we have used a set of PMR radios with repeaters on the island but this worked so well that we all communicated using the VHF - very clear signals from St Cats to Calshot.

If you have a close look at the manufacturers specs you will see that there are, fundimentally, two versions of these whips. One that transmits/receives a narrow vertical beam and one with a wide vertical beam. The narrow beam will provide more concentrated power but if the boat rolls a bit all the advantage will be lost. Most stockists hold the wider beam antennas in stock and thats what I used.

To recap - it worked well.

 

[ChrisKaye]

Thanks Hurricane and Fred