VHF splltter recommendation.

[PaulRainbow]

I would not pay £200 for the Quark device, i'd rather pay a little more for an Emtrak splitter.

Buying separate AIS and splitters is pretty much bad value.

 

[Refueler]

I would not pay £200 for the Quark device, i'd rather pay a little more for an Emtrak splitter.

Buying separate AIS and splitters is pretty much bad value.

Doesn't that depend on how you setup your AIS ?

I can understand when staying with Garmin and so on - where they still don't offer an inclusive Plotter.

But given that the Chinese have gone one step further and included AIS Transponder in many of their Plotters ... the point becomes highly debatable.

The OP has an ONWA .. which model he has - I don't know - but given that they are all AIS B+ units now that have AIS included ... the use of an EMTRAK would be a complete waste of money.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Doesn't that depend on how you setup your AIS ?

I can understand when staying with Garmin and so on - where they still don't offer an inclusive Plotter.

But given that the Chinese have gone one step further and included AIS Transponder in many of their Plotters ... the point becomes highly debatable.

The OP has an ONWA .. which model he has - I don't know - but given that they are all AIS B+ units now that have AIS included ... the use of an EMTRAK would be a complete waste of money.

Read the posts please.

The OP said he has an Onwa transceiver, no mention of plotters.

He already has the AIS, he wants a splitter. Suggestions have been made for the £200 Quark splitter, i said i would not pay £200 for that, i'd rather pay the little extra and have the Emtrak splitter.

 

[Refueler]

Read the posts please.

The OP said he has an Onwa transceiver, no mention of plotters.

He already has the AIS, he wants a splitter. Suggestions have been made for the £200 Quark splitter, i said i would not pay £200 for that, i'd rather pay the little extra and have the Emtrak splitter.

Until now I was not aware that ONwa did a Transceiver - I don't follow their sales that much - I only lok at sites when I need something or info.

When I was looking at Onwa sales - the Transceivers were built into the Plotters (the A line suffix).... with no Transceiver separate box that I can recall ...

Fair cop !

BUT - I assumed .. wrongly it seems (your post excerpt : Buying separate AIS and splitters is pretty much bad value.) - that you were advocating a Transceiver + splitter unit ... that is why I mentioned the AIS integrated unit ... which at end of day doesn't matter as in a plotter or standalone box - means only a splitter is needed ...
Which I now assume you meant only a splitter ...

WiFi and BT ?? yes handy - even I agree there ... I did do it a lot cheaper than Quark / Emtrak etc though !!

 

[MattS]

Read the posts please.

The OP said he has an Onwa transceiver, no mention of plotters.

He already has the AIS, he wants a splitter. Suggestions have been made for the £200 Quark splitter, i said i would not pay £200 for that, i'd rather pay the little extra and have the Emtrak splitter.

What's your reasoning for this @PaulRainbow - have you had bad experiences with the Quark stuff?

 

[PaulRainbow]

What's your reasoning for this @PaulRainbow - have you had bad experiences with the Quark stuff?

The Emtrak splitter is about £50 more than the Quark. Yes, not a fan of Quark, had a couple of issues.

 

[TSB240]

As a follow up on my original post. I fitted a Quark A015-TX.

I looked at the alternatives mentioned by a few on this thread but was more convinced by the advice given by the supplier.
The unit was easy to mount and connect.
My only concern is the instructions clearly state that the unit must be powered up before either vhf or transceiver. Not a real problem as both radio and transceiver require manual input to turn them on. I just wired the quark direct to the vhf feed from my main switch panel with a suitably rated fuse.

The leds are useful to indicate when either are transmitting and should there be an antenna fault.

I can't comment on real world use and my visibility on AIS.

I am currently on the hard in North Wales and my first observation is the receive range has increased from 40 miles to 72. I was able to track the Irish Ferry to Dublin!
Not likely to be used much unless needing to run an intercept mid ocean without benefit of satellite.

 

[yoxyn438]

I’ve seen good feedback on the Glomex RA201 splitter—solid build and works well with AIS and VHF together. A few folks I know use it with Onwa setups and haven’t had issues. Just make sure your antenna’s in good shape too, since that really affects performance.

 

[TSB240]

I’ve seen good feedback on the Glomex RA201 splitter—solid build and works well with AIS and VHF together. A few folks I know use it with Onwa setups and haven’t had issues. Just make sure your antenna’s in good shape too, since that really affects performance.

All fine info but this is for receive only ais sets and you would be ill advised to use it with a transeiver.

My experience of glomex kit is the complete opposite. I inherited a VHF FM/AM radio splitter which was binned as it ruined the SWR on my VHF and was as effective as the simple wire antenna that replaced it for the car stereo!

I also tested the SWR of one of their corded fibreglass vhf antennas. I repacked it in its sealed plastic case and got my money back. I have a very low regard for this brand.

 

[Supertramp]

As a follow up on my original post. I fitted a Quark A015-TX.

I looked at the alternatives mentioned by a few on this thread but was more convinced by the advice given by the supplier.
The unit was easy to mount and connect.
My only concern is the instructions clearly state that the unit must be powered up before either vhf or transceiver. Not a real problem as both radio and transceiver require manual input to turn them on. I just wired the quark direct to the vhf feed from my main switch panel with a suitably rated fuse.

The leds are useful to indicate when either are transmitting and should there be an antenna fault.

I can't comment on real world use and my visibility on AIS.

I am currently on the hard in North Wales and my first observation is the receive range has increased from 40 miles to 72. I was able to track the Irish Ferry to Dublin!
Not likely to be used much unless needing to run an intercept mid ocean without benefit of satellite.

Given the speed of the Dublin ferries a 72 mile range is about right!

I use a Vesper splitter with a transceiver with no problems, at least not that I'm aware of. Mine is switched on with the VHF as per its instructions.

 

[MattS]

The Emtrak splitter is about £50 more than the Quark. Yes, not a fan of Quark, had a couple of issues.

I'm having a bit of trouble with my Quark active splitter at the moment too. Using a VSWR meter to measure tranmission power and SWR, the Quark splitter appears to be significantly reducing transmission power (transmitting on 25W from the VHF translates into 4-6W coming out the other side of he splitter. Removing the splitter from the mix, and connecting SWR meter in line between VHF and antenna records 20-22W transmission power.

I'm struggling to get Quark to respond to my support requests at present - and accept this might just be an issue with my setup. However, it has made a bit nervous about a bit of kit that I thought was performing very well previously.

If I had my time again, I'd 100% just be going for the integrated Em-trak unit, although I haven't been able to establish whether is has a fallback passthrough for VHF as the Quark claims to have.

 

[[164147]]

Install a separate AIS antenna - VHF splitters are all a compromise.

 

[MattS]

Install a separate AIS antenna - VHF splitters are all a compromise.

Of course - is the optimum solution. But in a world where one is considering splitters, it is useful to have some comparative feedback.