AIS and RF interference

[barnakiel]

BTW

Is this possible to mount two VHF antennas on one wire?

Can I mount so linked two VHF antennas to one radio?

b.

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

BTW

Is this possible to mount two VHF antennas on one wire?

Can I mount so linked two VHF antennas to one radio?

b.

This would not be a good idea. It is possible however to have 2 antennas with a 2-way switch to select antenna A or B. But there will be problems trying to feed 2 antennas from the same radio.

[DavefromNZ]

I tried the splitter. Not impressed. The range was not very good and when I transmitted on the VHF the AIS650 gave a failure warning as it wanted to transmit at the same time. Both the splitter vendor and Raymarine confirmed that this could not be fixed.

There was an excellent discussion on this about 18 months ago and some great tech advice. It was clear that a separated AIS aerial should be mounted well away 3m? from the VHF. So I went to the hassle of fitting an AIS tuned aerial on the top spreader. Fantastic, I get ships up to 100nm away, also works significantly better on Satellite AIS tracking as well.


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[Emerald Sea]

We have a AIS650 and Icom 801 and have had no related interference either way. The 650 control box is located approx 1m from the Icom main unit. Adjoining cables are closer.

I did receive RF from the Raymarine 125 at the nav station and now turn this off when the HF/P4 is running. In fact I also disconnect the power supply to the PC. Never had to turn off the AIS however.

[landonshaw]

I have a separate AIS antenna mounted on the stern. My vhf is atop the mast. I like the idea of having a backup antenna in case one fails. A few years ago my mast antenna failed and I was without communications for a few days. Now I have spare parts to quickly change one to the other.


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[colemj]

Originally Posted by landonshaw

I have a separate AIS antenna mounted on the stern. My vhf is atop the mast. I like the idea of having a backup antenna in case one fails.

We use a splitter and share the masthead antenna between the VHF and AIS and we also have a backup antenna. These are not mutually exclusive.

If our masthead antenna fails for any reason, we can simply switch the splitter over to the backup antenna by swapping a connector (I just did this today for testing purposes). If the splitter fails, we can send each radio to separate antennas.

Mark