Radio Glitches- West Kirby

[Darin Ballington]

At the recent 10R and M nationals there were a number of radio issues.

The reasons for this appear to be varied but from what I could see it related mainly to the low walkway- salt water-large waves and carbon fibre hulls.

The only solution for some was to pull the antenna outside of the hull and leave the bare end pointing up, but this didnt work for all.

Does anyone have any thoughts to a better solution?

[John Bennett]

Some radios are classed as "Park flyer", in my experience they often have trouble at distance and with carbon in particular.

Remember it is only the last 31mm of rx aerial that matters, and that should be straight

Make sure you haven't got other sailors standing between your and your boat if you are having trouble. In fact anything in the way of line of sight reduces range.

Stand as high as possible or hold the tx up high if you are having trouble

Make sure your tx aerial is parallel to the rx aerial, this is best for the signal

Try to get the rx aerial vertical in the boat to allow best reception.

If aerial under the deck then just  under deck patching is better than in pot with battery, or under hard decking

Try to get the rx aerial above the deck, ideally several inches and with 2 at right angles

Try to use rx with 2 aerials and have them at right angles to each other

Add a "satellite" rx to give more aerials

Use longer aerials on your rx  so you can position well, many rxs have aerial lead with a connector so can be (carefully) replaced with a longer one.

 

Edited July 22, 2019 by John Bennett

[Damian101]

It looked like it was mainly skippers using Futaba gear.

I used to have issues when sailing near the swimming baths with my IOM many years ago when I using Futaba. 

No issues this weekend except for the idiot on the sticks turning left instead of right.

[Lester Gilbert]

On 22/07/2019 at 12:41, John Bennett said:

Add a "satellite" rx to give more aerials

Hi John

Could you post a link to a page which explains how to do this, please?  Many thanks!

[Lester Gilbert]

On 22/07/2019 at 13:16, Damian101 said:

It looked like it was mainly skippers using Futaba gear.

Hi Damian

I guess if there were 3 skippers having trouble and 2 used Futaba, this might be right.  But if there were 40 Futaba users in the event and 10 other brands, a different picture emerges....  Do you happen to know how many of the skippers were successfully using Futaba?

My maths tutor always told us about the headline, "Dolphin saved my life".  Yeah, he'd say, but how often do you hear of a swimmer returning saying, Damn dolphin killed me?