[Elecraft] K3 on motorboat.

[W2xj]

i think there is an esthetic problem that is more important.

Sent from my iPad

> On Jun 9, 2020, at 3:24 PM, Robert Sands <k7voradio at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Verticals require more attention to ground but the goal should be to
> increase the antenna current, thus increasing radiated signal. ground into
> water seems like a waste but has DC grounding value. I use hung vertical
> dipoles (20 and 15) with no need for ground and they work amazingly well. I
> have tried letting wire or zinc ribbon  strips drop into saltwater to
> ground verticals and there is no value I can detect over something simpler,
> like tying to existing structures or running a above water wire
> counterpoise. Vertical dipoles require no Rf ground and propagate at low
> angle and high efficiency. Far effects over water are what counts, more
> than grounding, except in verticals to get higher antenna current.
> K7VO
> 
>> On Tue, Jun 9, 2020 at 7:38 AM Frank C Richards <prpntfmr at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Having been in the marine electronics business I was able to successfully
>> install many HF radios on boats from large steel commercial fishing boats
>> to a small 28 ft fiberglass fishing boat and sailboats.
>> Anything metal , engine, fuel tanks,rudder posts,thru hulls, morse control
>> cables,intercoolers outside of the hull,rub rail sections jumpered together
>> to form one continuous loop. Dynaplates help but will not work well as the
>> only source of ground. I once saw a carbon brush riding thru spring tension
>> on a prop shaft, tying the prop to ground.
>> It can be tricky as sometimes you get ground loops and you must be aware
>> of currents that can cause electrolysis.
>> For the antenna we primarily used a 23 ft whip, sometimes on large vessels
>> a longwire.
>> This was before synthesized radios and autouners. My favorite radio was
>> the
>> Drake TRM which had a built in manual tuner and a 50 ohm output if you
>> wanted
>> to use a trapped vertical.
>> On  commercial fishing boats you had to leave the dock so that the
>> outriggers
>> could be lowered and trawl doors put in the water as this changed the
>> tuning
>> quite a bit from being at the dock. Interestingly enough I think the
>> toughest
>> time I had tuning  was on an 85 ft steel shrimp boat even with all that
>> metal.
>> .
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