Radio Antenna Question . . .

[tpenfield]

Greetings,

The radio reception on my boat is marginal at best. So, my pre-season punch list includes doing something to enhance the radio reception without a whole lot of fuss, since I have quite a few others things on the punch list.

Anyway - I pulled the head unit out for a look and as I had suspected the antenna is a 'simple' wire type, which I believe many boats have as 'standard'.


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I am thinking (hoping) that I could do something simple - like increasing the length of wire - to improve the reception.

Of course, I don't think I was paying attention that day way back in engineering school, so I wanted to get some comments on proceeding.

I am not up for adding a fixed mount antenna, as that is more than I am hoping to do. Just wondering about any specific science on the length of wire (i.e. antenna) as it relates to signal reception. The current wire antenna is 34.5" +/- in length. I am thinking I may want to go 2X or 4X on the length . . . but not sure how specific the length needs to be?

TIA for any advice.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,..... Howdy Ted,.... Do you have a ship to shore radio on yer boat,..??

If so, I had very good luck, 'n reception with an adapter that teed into the com radio antenna cable,.....
I think it was from shakespere, same as my foldin' StS antenna,....

 

[dingbat]

Improve FM Signal on Radio with a Single Wire Antenna

Many older radios and emergency radios have a single wire antenna. The single wire antenna is a short metal stick that pivots on a receiver base that is

www.savenetradio.org

 

[tpenfield]

Thanks guys. I made the wire 4X longer than it was by adding 3X its current length, thinking that I should make the antenna length multiples of the original lenght. That seemed to work better than the short wire.

I had the boat in various stages of disassembly today having removed part of the cabin forward wall to check some cavernous space under the bow section. So, I ran the now longer wire (about 12 feet) up the port sidewall from the radio head unit to the bow section and across to the starboard side . . . all of this under the bow cockpit liner.

It seems to work much better, but time will tell.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Run the longer wire around the cap joint

The wire as a cheap antenna was first used on GM dust-buster mini vans in the 80s, now it's ubiquitous.

Im using the Shakespeare adapter in the Rogue that Bondo mentioned

 

[airshot]

I added an old style auto antenna, the type that raises up and down, metal that slides inside each section attached to my console. Normally it works well in the lowered position, but if reception gets bad, I just raise up the antenna.