Have you purchased an SWR meter? That's really the only way to ensure you have a good installation. Shakespere sells one for about 120 dollars. It basically checks the efficiency of your antenna installation if you transmit. Your connection might be fine on receive, but on transmit it could be horrible and could burn up the internals of your radio. Apparently the cheaper one I have is no longer in production, only the more expensive one which tests the receive end as well. You would need it and a 3 foot long piece of cable with a male on each end. You hook it up in line with your antenna.
There are a few morons on other forums who say "why bother with this, you can't adjust it anyway." No, you can't, it's not about that. The antenna was adjusted at the factory. IF YOU MAKE A GOOD CONNECTION AND HAVE GOOD WIRE AND A GOOD RADIO, your SWR will fall in the accepted range. If you do not check it, you're basically just hoping. Not only can a poor connection burn up the radio internally, but it can cause your range to suffer greatly. It's a one time expense, I bought mine 15 years ago and still use it to this day. Over time antennas can degrade and once the SWR falls outside the accepted range, it needs to be replaced, But you wouldn't know this unless you check it regularly. Also, if the antenna ever gets bent or damaged you would need to check it. Chances are it would need to be replaced. But maybe not. Without an SWR meter, who knows?
I'm a Ham radio operator and SWR is like our second bible. Oh one other thing, it is illegal to transmit on the marine frequencies when the boat is not in the water. This means on the trailer at the dock, in the driveway, etc are all no good. Does anyone care? Probably not, but if you get caught you can get a fine.
got it installed today. all i got so far was a little static from ch. 13 but i didn't expect to hear much anyway. only sat at the dock for about an hour after i installed it. but it turns on and lights up. might head back down later and hang out. still have to register my MMSI and whatever else i need to do
i used the solderless shakespeare antenna connector. worked very slick. reviews i read were good so we will see. i also connected the radio to constant 12V using the buss bars under my dash