vhf radio problems

anubis

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Hi,
My radio seems to be sending out a very weak signal. It can barely be heard on another boat 5m away. Battery is fully charged. How can I work out what the problem is? Help! Radio is a SIMRAD RS8300. Radio is receiving ch16 but inaudible through cockpit speaker...no sound through handset.
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ShipsWoofy

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Suggest, before you hit the PTT again (press to transmit) you borrow an aerial from someone or fit your spare (if you have one). It sounds like a reception problem which could mean a damaged socket, cable or even antenna coil up top.

Transmitting into a bad antenna 'should' not damage your set as they are stated to have protection, but I would not at this point push your luck. If the spare sorts your problems great, if not, then you need to fix or have the set fixed .

The next place I would look would be the multi core cable from the handset. From what you have said, the function of the radio appears to work, it does TX, RX etc. but it is inaudible to you, you may have a dry joint or broken wire, and from what I can see of that set, everything goes back to the black box controller. This makes any damage in that cable vulnerable, I am going to guess they are using very light wire which is prone to breaking if you have been a little over enthusiastic by stretching it.

It is really difficult trying to fault find with such scanty information, but these are just some random thoughts. Like I said, you seem sure that the radio is functioning other than the few symptoms you have mentioned.

I could of course be miles off.
 

William_H

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When you are listening on another radio 5 metres away you should turn the sqelch control such that background noise is loud. Now when your radio transmits a weak signal will mean that the background noise is still audible like a station a long way away. However if there is a dramatic silencing of the background noise and it sounds like someone is tansmitting but not speaking then you have a strong signal but with weak or no modulation (voice).
A strong signal but weak modulation would point to a bad microhone or wiring mic to radio. If you have a local standard mic at the radio you should try that, if tit is still bad get the radio fixed or replaced. A weak signal of course may mean bad aerial which may also show up as poor reception. (not to be confused with poor sound level to your cockpit speaker) good luck will.
 

bdsweeting

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May be silly question but.... is this an imported radio and if so does if have the correct frequencies for your area ?
 

ShipsWoofy

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he said he was also having problems on ch16 which is a world wide standard. I did not think of this, but re-reading his post I would assume that is not what is causing his problems.

Still think it might be the aerial, need him to some back to the forum so I / we can ask some questions, like, can you hear noise with the squelch right down, does the set display a SNR (signal to noise ratio).

I want to help, but it is hard when seemingly talking into a vacuum /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
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