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2017-12-03, 01:21 AM
(This post was last modified: 2017-12-03, 01:22 AM by abarrow.)
I mounted a regular marine VHF antenna on the transom, which I use as my AIS antenna. It doesn't have as good range as if it were at the masthead, but my logic was that if I got de-masted I could use it as a backup VHF marine antenna.
Don't use a splitter - one good enough to prevent your marine VHF from overwhelming your AIS receiver would probably cost more than just a separate antenna and feedline.
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i did test arround and depence of the use idid make some antennas myself and they work much better than antennas you can buy. The Antennas that come with and you have is in a realy good quality. A difference make the tram (arround 80-90$) Antenna i use. And i spoke with RTL-SDR.COM approx and we are looking both arround for some high quality antennas since half a year. I use some rtl-sdr sticks for drone or copter purposes. its in the plan of rtl-sdr to provide more things in the future. So a lots is by taste and very various.
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What sort of range are you getting? There was a lot of discussion in other sailing forums about where to place AIS antennas. Apparently some offshore racing classes require that AIS antennas be at the masthead, giving range of up to 60 miles. I guess I could understand that for a racing yacht that is going 20 knots, but for an average sailor, I think a range of 10 miles or so is quite adequate, and perhaps even desired in busy areas.
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(2017-12-03, 08:20 PM)abarrow Wrote: What sort of range are you getting? There was a lot of discussion in other sailing forums about where to place AIS antennas. Apparently some offshore racing classes require that AIS antennas be at the masthead, giving range of up to 60 miles. I guess I could understand that for a racing yacht that is going 20 knots, but for an average sailor, I think a range of 10 miles or so is quite adequate, and perhaps even desired in busy areas.
You can not compare my things with offshore racing. I am just a river traveller at the moment in Mass netherlands. Anyways i was mostly testing the 2 given Antennas with the Trust one and some you can find in the resources. And was for purpose to test with plane trafic. The antennas get for plane traffic betwhen 150 and 250 km I am not reading much in different forums mostly because of the english language that is used there. And you know here about my talents...
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Cheapest the best !
I built my AIS antanna from this video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdEglNHyHB4
Worked just fine from my terasse, I will attach it to the rear pulpit if de-masted or if the main antenna gets broken.
(My VHF outputs AIVDM sentences to the chart plotter).
Cordialement
Didier B
Pi4, SSD USB3, OP 3.0 Touch SK 3.2.1 OpenCPN 5.8.4 : Thank you Thank you Thank you
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Thanks All,
I actually have an emergency VHF antenna that I had made myself over 10 years ago and had forgotten about!
I haven't tried the RPi system on the boat yet, only at home since the boat only went back in the water this week
When I get down to it I will try my old DIY antenna (made with a bamboo stick and a two part simple wire, up and down) and then get to making some other ones as well for fun.
Thanks again
Leigh