Hi,
I realized I have a relative poor quality with my On Board VHF. If I compare to my handheld, the quality seems very poor. Just listening to the weather channels, I can get only One channel, while sitting in the marina, while with my handheld, I get the 3 channels almost perfectly. I can transmit too, as fas as I can tell, locally to at least to my handheld.
I checked all the connectors of the radio cable, and they looked corroded, then I replace them, but it is barely better. Few folks told me that usually the cables themselves do not corrode internally, then the issue must be on the top of the mast.
Before I go up there, is there anything I could do at the sea level to try to troubleshoot this radio system. I thought about buying a radio antenna and a new cable and connect it on deck. I eventually will need it anyway. This is an old boat, obviously, and I suspect the electronics are at least 10 to 20 years old. I wont be surprised if the Antenna and cable connector at the top of the mast are totally corroded.
Question: If the Antenna and connector were badly corroded, would I still get some sort of signal , but with poor quality ?
Could that be the radio itself ? Except the quality of the link itself, everything looks pretty good on it (I think it is a more recent radio than the antenna/cable).
ps: How do you solder at the top of the mast ? is it even possible ?
I realized I have a relative poor quality with my On Board VHF. If I compare to my handheld, the quality seems very poor. Just listening to the weather channels, I can get only One channel, while sitting in the marina, while with my handheld, I get the 3 channels almost perfectly. I can transmit too, as fas as I can tell, locally to at least to my handheld.
I checked all the connectors of the radio cable, and they looked corroded, then I replace them, but it is barely better. Few folks told me that usually the cables themselves do not corrode internally, then the issue must be on the top of the mast.
Before I go up there, is there anything I could do at the sea level to try to troubleshoot this radio system. I thought about buying a radio antenna and a new cable and connect it on deck. I eventually will need it anyway. This is an old boat, obviously, and I suspect the electronics are at least 10 to 20 years old. I wont be surprised if the Antenna and cable connector at the top of the mast are totally corroded.
Question: If the Antenna and connector were badly corroded, would I still get some sort of signal , but with poor quality ?
Could that be the radio itself ? Except the quality of the link itself, everything looks pretty good on it (I think it is a more recent radio than the antenna/cable).
ps: How do you solder at the top of the mast ? is it even possible ?