VHF weak transmitting signal. Ideas?

[onthejob]

I replaced my Raymarine Ray230 VHF radio with a brand new out of the box Ray260. Everything hooked up the same except instead of a SeaTalk1 connection I had to make the NMEA 0183 connection to the older RL70C chartplotter. Instructions said it has to be SeaTalk-ng or NMEA 0183, not both and it's for the GPS location. That connection appeared to be easier because I would have to buy a converter from SeaTalk1 to SeaTalk-ng. I also installed a brand new Shakespeare Mariner 8500 8' 6dB VHF antenna with all new RG-8X coax cable with a Shakespeare centerpin gold plated PL-259 connector to the Ray260. The base is mounted about 8' from the waterline.

So all summer I was getting complaints from other boats not hearing my transmissions and me not hearing their broadcasts unless we were about a half mile away and inline of sight of each other. I had a handheld as a back up that I ended up using more than the Ray260. Well it's next on the winter project list.

I was able to use someone's SWR/Powermeter that was small and looked lower end but owner said he gets good results with it. It is for both VHF/UHF. I connected it to the base station and I was only getting about 10 watts and yes it was set to HI power. I set it to LO power and was getting 1 watt. The manual specs say 25 watts on HI and 5 watts on LO. I checked the SWR meter and got 2:1 but I'm not sure if this reading will be accurate because the antenna is folded down under a tarp in a storage shed. It was also 35 degrees in the shed when I conducted these test readings so not sure if a cold base unit has anything to do with low power transmissions.

Anybody have any ideas about anything I may be missing before I try the Raymarine customer service route?

Thanks

 

[estoltz]

Hopefully I can help you sort this out a bit. First of all the SWR Meter will not give you much accuracy unless the antenna is in its used position (up) and is in the open. Even standing near the antenna can affect your antenna analyzer. Can you tell me did you make the cable yourself using the Shakespeare tapping connectors or was the cable manufactured? It sounds like you don't have a solid connection on your coaxial connectors. Those connectors can be problematic. I finally broke down and got the traditional connectors that require the solder for the tip and shield. To rule it out maybe obtain a premanufactured cable to perform a process of elimination. Ham Radio Outlet is a good source for these and I'm sure there must be one in your area if not another Amateur radio supply store.

 

[Havana Shamrock]

My first thought while reading your post is, you didn't make a good connection on the connector. I just finished installing a Ray 240 on my dinghy and a new Antenna with the same connector I had to try a few times for a good connection . I agree open your connector and check it.

 

[onthejob]

I see you're point and considered the same. I never felt good about the connection that I did with the self tapping Shakespeares PL-259 that came with the antenna. I am confident that I can solder the traditional connection myself and I will begin there. I kind of expected that result with the SWR meter but felt obligated to report it since I did it.

A side note: I did use a pre-manufactured jumper cable to conduct the test for the SWR and powermeter tests. This jumper cable was the first thing attached to the base unit to the meter then the antenna cable went into the other end of the meter. So wouldn't this still give me a fairly accurate read for the watts transmitted?

 

[Bt Doctur]

When using a swr meter and an extention section of coax its bets to have a 52 ohm dummy to verify the length of the jumper matches the load for a 0 swr. Now you can correctly see the ant load. the closer you are to 1:1 , more power will get into the ant.