My radio won't pick up JACK!!

[dragracer]

When we are on the lake my stupid radio won't pick up hardly any FM stations. Looks like the radio just has a piece of wire coming out of the antenna plug-in and then it's hooked underneath to one of the front railing bolts. I really don't want to drill a hole in my boat and mount a goofy looking car type antenna on it. Anyone got any suggestions on how or where to mount an antenna. Is there an fm antenna made especially for boats? I gots ta have me some rock & roll!!

 

[mathiasmorgan]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

Want a simple solution.. buy a car antenna but don't drill the hole and mount it.. Leave it under the dash. It will give you some reception (though not the best).. An antenna needs a ground plane to work as it's best. On a car, it's the body of the car that the antena is mounted on that serves as a ground plane. If your boat is fiberglass, your not going to get a lot of benefit drilling and mounting it anyway, except to get it up a little higher. Mounting the antenna to a metal plate (as big as possible) will help.<br /><br />If your boat is aluminum, connecting the base of the antenna to ANYWHERE on the hull will make a big difference because not only the boat, but the whole lake will be your ground plane. <br />Car antenna's are pretty cheap.. as low as $6.. <br /><br />Hope this helps..<br />George

 

[crazy charlie]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

You must have a vhf antenna???????? Just buy a switch to plug both the vhf and the radio into.I have one and it workd great. Charlie

 

[dragracer]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

Nope don't have a vhf antenna charlie. Only have a wire coming out of the radio where the antenna coax usually plugs in. I guess I'll try getting a regular(car) antenna and stuffing it under the bow like George suggested and see if that helps. Dunno what else to try.

 

[Larry Carnahan]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

I got a signal splitter as Charlie recommends and it works great for me. Before that though, I took the wire and strung it around under the console and that helped some. I found that running the wire in some locations had no effect, but finally got some reception.

 

[n0ukf]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

Charlie did NOT suggest a signal splitter, he suggested a switch. But that is beside the point if there's no VHF antenna to begin with. I know they make signal splitters to share antennas between your car stereo and CB, but I've never seen one for marine band.<br /><br />On a fiberglass boat you won't have any ground plane, but the antenna cable can act as a bit of counterpoise (similar to ground plane in purpose). You can also add wires to the antenna base to act as ground plane radials or counterpoise.

 

[Link]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

AmigaDragon: I know you are correct but think your getting into to much detail here at a boaters forum: AM/FM its the same radio <br />Plays the same cassets/CD's... <br /><br />Dragracer: Try hooking up a wire to the outside case of your radio and hooking it up to the stern drive or out board motor.. it will use the water as a ground plane..<br />AmigaDragon: Man would I like to take this to another plane... hehe <br /><br />N7CEO<br />Link

 

[rage]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

Dragracer, While they argue about the type of antenna you have her is a link to a company that makes marine antennas. Pretty good quality. I put one on mine and it works great. antenna

 

[dragracer]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

Thanks all...... I may try one of these windshield mount things. Anyone ever tried one? Be worth a shot before I go drilling holes in my boat(that ain't happening) - Looks like they have these right here on iboats for 19 bucks! Cool <br /><br /> http://www.shakespeare-marine.com/antennas/specs/4353ant.htm <br /><br />Can anyone tell me what this means???<br />"Note: All Shakespeare Marine AM/FM Antennas<br />are vertically polarized and 93 ohms Impedance."

 

[mathiasmorgan]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

Yeah Drag.. that is basically the same as the old di-pole antennas.. you can buy a di-pole at Radio shack cheap.. you can even make one out of 2 lead antenna wire.. but you can buy it so cheap why bother.. hit Radio Shack and ask them for a di-pole anteena.. it's a T shaped antenna made out of 75 ohm flat antenna lead that is used to go to TV antenna's on your roof (before the days of cable).. heheh nice thing about that is it's flexible and you can stick up under the bow.<br />George

 

[dragracer]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

Now I find that Shakespeare also makes an antenna mount that mounts on a railing.<br />

<br /><br />So that gives me another option. A little more money for mount and antenna but might be worth it if would work.

 

[Ralph 123]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

Emag wasn't my strongest suit but here goes:<br /><br />Are you familiar with polarized sunglasses? You put them on and all of a sudden you see clearly because there is no glare? That is because the sunglasses only let in certian polarized light waves (certian polarizations) and block others. <br /><br />Light is just one type of elctromagnetic wave. Other examples are radio and TV signals.<br /><br />AM stations transmit vertically polarized signals (the field is perpendicular to the ground and parallel to the antenna). for maximum reception you orient your receiving antenna vertically.<br /><br />FM stations broadcast with circular polarization so you can orient your receiving antenna in many different ways.<br /><br />So, an AM/FM antenna is verically polarized to allow good AM reception w/o hurting FM reception. By filtering out the "bad" waves the antenna provides a dleaner signal. Just like the sunglasses do.<br /><br />That's my best shot at explaining it

 

[dragracer]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

Got it Ralph.....thanks.

 

[jhreed]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

D.R., All the mobile radios I've ever seen have to have a certain capacity antenna lead-in so as to "tune" the input circuitry to the correct frequency. Since you don't have any cable connected to the antenna input, the first stage of the radio is horribly mis-tuned and won't ever work properly. Get a FM car antenna from Radio Shack or Pep Boys and plug it in and mount it anywhere you can find, even lying down. It will work much better. If you can ground the radio case to the battery negative lead, that might help also. Good luck.. Jim Reed.

 

[Jersey Bill]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

DR, Just installed a Clairon AM/FM/CD marine radio on my boat. It came with a 1 ft. rubber ant. that you can mount on the boat or you could clamp it on the bow railing along side the windshield. I was really suprised at the number of stations it received and being alongside the windshield it dosen't bother anything, I'm sure you could find one in a marine elect. store. Hope this helps.<br /><br /> Jersey Bill

 

[billfishfla]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

Yes I think ralph is correct and his solution seems best

 

[duck-n-pond]

Re: My radio won't pick up JACK!!

Ralph explains polarization quite clearly and accuratly for this forum. As a further footnote if you shop for marine antennas (and you seem to be), you may find that a number of them are 'groundplaneless' indicating the obvious. They may cost a little more and may have less gain (ability to pull signals from the air), but in some scenarios, just what the doctor ordered. I have used these on boats and a similar style on fiberglasss xport truck cabs. Another cheap and dirty trick I used is to mount an ordinary antenna on fiberglass is placing foil tape on the underside (36"x36") in a X shape, drill the center and mount the antenna - instant ground plane.