FWIW...some people have a little different perception regarding time value of
money. My time is worth something. And $130 isn't much time!!! If I was billing it, a trip to the
boat and back is almost that...
And as commented on in one of the posts to this thread, 30 minutes WILL NOT be adequate to educate yourself on this subject. I've spent about 30 hours in the last week looking into it. I'm pretty technically literate. As well as pretty handy, around the boat, the car and the house. I'd have to make about three times what I do to pay for what I fix myself! This isn't something you'll seriously educate yourself on in that short a time frame.
Anyway, I bought a boat last summer, and on the advise of a tech that was also a previous owner of the boat, installed a configuration that had apparently worked for him in the past, but is not working for me now. So I've been in search of alternatives. Long story..PM me if you're interested.
So....
Tech/former owner is a good tech. He rewired the boat exquisitely. Has an electronic
galvanic isolator. When I bought it, hauled it for a bottom job last August, had the anodes replaced. Went into the
water the week before Easter to clean the bottom for an Easter Weekend
regatta, and the zinc on the prop shaft still looks like new. Anybody else getting +6months on a zinc? I certainly didn't in San Diego!
I've just started to make the
radio a priority in the
refit. After all the
research, tomorrow is actually dedicated to thouroughly looking at the whole boat and how it's bonded/grounded electrically between the 120V & 12V systems. But suffice it to say, if he got the boat set up that a zinc will last for +6 months without noticeable deterioration, that's not something I really want to go messing with.
I have "loads" of metal objects I could run foil to. And they're
Bronze, Cast Iron,
Aluminum, and the
mast is bonded to a plate that may be a Dynaplate, but there's no name on the plate. Well, in the early 80's, you just went to the store and bought something that worked for what you needed, right?
But the thought that I may inadvertently F&*k up a good thing, I've been looking at all kinds of alternatives to the "traditionally accepted" methodology. Can we say "electrolysis"?
I've been asked about thinking "outside the box" to which my reply has always been "what box?" Open mindedness is what leads to progress.
In this whole endeavor, my goal is to get a
HF radio that is as isolated from both the AC & DC grounding systems as I can get it, yet still get satisfactory performance out of the system. Doesn't have the be the best there is, just meet my needs. If I can get it to communicate at distances that I deem necessary for a
safety factor, then that's good enough...and that's worth $130 to
experiment with. Because of my rig configuration, also need to have alternate
antenna configuration than a conventional insulated stay configuration.
So, I'm going to be the proverbial naive guinea pig. I ordered kiss
ssb system. I have a moderately acceptable receiving setup now that does not seem to TX at all. I'll post how things workout.
I didn't blindly buy the thing, but rather, in consideration of all of the other inherent systems on the boat, felt it was worth $130 to see if it worked. Good Christ, I've spent that much on dinner that ended up in the
toilet...literally. WTF? Maybe it will just end up being an
emergency backup. Still pretty
cheap from that standpoint.
In any event, over the next few weeks, depending on how things work out, I may start a new thread to let everyone know how things are progressing. I live in a place where I can't just run down to the local West
Marine, Home Depot, &/or
Radio Shack to buy things. I'll have to improvise.
I like the challenge.