Ham Radio Grounds on CDs

[Parfait's Provider]

OK Andy, here's your cue to tell us what you and what's-his-name, Gordon West, think is an adequate ground. It is time to take another few steps and get on the air MM. I suppose you are using an insulated backstay? How long between insulators? Was that because of the backstay or someone's cut at what is ideal? Do you have opinions on which insulator is best? I guess Alan has his favorite? I am looking for Norsemen in 9/32s size; there were a pair of 3/8ths on Ebay, but they don't convert for some reason I can't quite imagine as an engineer. Maybe it has something to do with marketing?

Have you ever used a vertical dipole onboard?

Hope you are on the hook and enjoying the moon, but if not, I'll be here waiting to see if you of anyone else reply tonight.

[Guest]

Ken -- For about 10 years I got along just fine with a "Hamstick" whip antenna, coupled with a manual tuner, and with a piece of running rigging wire (7x19) trailing in the water, attached with visegrips to the baseplate. This works better than you'd think. A couple of years ago, I converted to an insulated backstay, auto-tuner, and copper strip grounds, and the results are spectacular. I used strips of copper flashing, about 2" wide, running from the transmitter ground down to the groundplate, and from the tuner ground inside the transom at the base of the backstay, also down to the groundplate inside the keel well. This, BTW, is also where all the grounds from the rigging, lifelines, and motor attach, so you make a pretty substantial ground "plane", if the connections are fairly clean.

Some links:

http://www.marinenet.net/antenna%20info.htm
http://www.cruiser.co.za/radionet.asp
http://www.radioworks.com/nbgnd.html#A
http://www.geocities.com/bill_dietrich/ ... tionOnBoat

This stuff is pretty important in Mexico, as the ham and SSB nets are where we get our weather.

Good luck
Johnny of STORK
KJ5UR

[yves feder w1ux]

hi there Ken, and Johnny,

On my older boats I used to use an endfed wire that I would haul up with the spinnaker halyard - at anchor or in port - but of course with a permanent installation, went to an insulated backstay, fed by an Icom AH-4 autotuner securely mounted in the lazarette, with ground strapping to the engine and the rest of the ground system.
Length of insulated portion in my case is 38', not counting the feedline portion to the insulator. A good friend using a similar system has equally good results with a 34' length.

The results are far superior to the older Hustlers I used to attach to the pushpit, and even those produce much better results than the Hamsticks, which at 80 meters are terribly inefficient. They're better at 40 and up

We have a regular roundtable on 75meters with a few marine mobiles, and the hamstick guys are always the weakest signals:):)

The largest population of ham radio ops aboard vessels is to be found with the Seven Seas Cruising Association. They actively promote ham radio and in fact do help folks get started and involved. You can check out a discussion thread on backstay insulators, etc. at

http://www.ssca.org/sscabb/index.php?ac ... &topic=733

And if you navigate from there to other related topics, you may find a wealth of useful information. SSCA is a great resource for cruisers in general.

As for the backstay insulators themselves, Sta-lok is one brand in fairly common use. The old "bottlescrews" were the common ones 25+ years ago. Sta-Lok uses a system where the wire ends are splayed out and held in place by a system of fitted conical pieces.
Personally I don't know if I would trust them, but their prices are reasonable (if this matters when you're hauling a** in 30+K)

The swage on models NavTec or Ronstan are the ones my local rigger recommends. I have the NavTec units and they are more expensive, similar to the older bottlescrews from years back.

The rig I use is an Icom 706 (original model) and they are the overwhelming favorite in the sailing community (I even have a Mark II-G in the car

Good luck whatever you do!
73 and Fair Winds!
Yves
W1UX/MM
http://www.tinyradio.com/saltwater.html
formerly of S/V "Alphee" (18) CD27 #4 - yes, #4) 1977
currently posted to S/V "Alphee" (44) Sabre 34 MkII #282 (1986)
homeported in Stonyngtonne, Corrupticut.

[DanaVin]

When we installed SSB Marine Radio (Icom 718) on GE, we had kept the PO insulated backstay. We also used wide band stripping to connect the ground from the Ant. Tuner Box (new Icom unit) down to both scupper ball through hull valves in a big diamond shape.
We received the FCC Ships license and also the Operators License and off we went. Works really great! Now we're waiting for 1Q, '06, to get the codeless ham license.
Some pix at:
http://svGladysErzella.photosite.com
Thanks
DanaVin

[Russell]

The way I did it on my CD 36 is with the insulated backstay and two copper dynaplates mounted to the hull (best place I found for them was right behind the engine) the dynaplates in theory provide more then enough area for ground on their own, but I went ahead and ran about 40' of copper strapping as well in the area behind the engine. I liked the idea of using the dynaplates and not gounding to the thruhulls so I could keep groundplane isolated from the DC ground system. Tuner is installed in starboard cockpit locker and receiver is in the quarterberth and the head of course is at the nav station. Its an ICOM M802 radio and works wonderfully. Though even though I kept the ground plane seperate from the DC ground system I do get RF noise from several things: Wind generator, altinator, refridgerator and inverter. I am going to add some supression ferrets to those items and I am also going to take the breaker for the SSB off the main DC panel and move it to its own breaker isolated from everything else and run directly to the battery to get away from the noise.

[rtbates]

One of the sailing mags, Crusing World or Sail, had an article a few months back on using 22ga wire, 20 or so feet, simply wrapped around posts on a board. They're results found it to be as good as any dedicated SSB ground system.

Randy 25D Seraph #161