[Elecraft] Re: K2 on sailboat?

Doug Netherton dnethert at rogers.com
Sun Oct 17 08:59:21 EDT 2004


Tom,

The big problem with antannas and a sailboat (unless it is primarily 
made from wood) is all the metal in the mast and stays.  Perhaps you 
could shunt feed a mast or stay like some people shunt feed a tower for 
80 or 160 meters, I don't know.   If you own the ship, perhaps you could 
put insulators in the stays and end feed them as dipoles of the bands 
you are interested in.

And then there is the question of do you want to operate while in 
motion.  A sailboat in motion needs the deck clear of "stuff" to work 
all that rigging correctly.  While docked, you could haul the centre of 
a dipole up the mast with a halyard and push out the dipole ends with 
big fishing poles like SD20's.  We did it one Field Day from a docked 
sailboat.
http://www.qsl.net/ve3mcf/fd2002/40m/Dipole40M.html

I guess it depends on your objectives and length of stay on the boat...  
There are hams that live on their boat.  Your check out their web sites 
for antenna information.

73, Doug, VE3MCF



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