Old antenna-can it be re-purposed?

[autumnbreeze27]

Our boat has a short white antenna on the mizzen that runs down to the nav table and has an Amphenol 77175. Is there someway to adapt it to a bullet m2? would I get an adapter or have to put a new end on it?

I believe it was setup for a Furuno Weatherfax. Could I adapt this to work with my Kaito 1103? or should I just get rid of it?

I'm one of those if it doesn't work take it off and throw it away types.

[Paul_DY]

I think you need to throw it away.

Weather fax uses HF which is approximately 1000 times lower than Wi-Fi and this is just too large a difference in frequency for the antenna to be used - the attenuation will just be too much particularly if it just has normal RG58 coax cable.

You need to get a good high gain, marine grade Wi-Fi antenna and low loss coax cable to get good results.

[xeon_tsd]

Keep the others on board in line!

[ka4wja]

Autumnbreeze,
It is impossible for anyone here to be 100% certain what antenna that might be, without knowing the model number, etc...

But, I'll give you some thoughts...

Originally Posted by autumnbreeze27

Our boat has a short white antenna on the mizzen that runs down to the nav table and has an Amphenol 77175. Is there someway to adapt it to a bullet m2? would I get an adapter or have to put a new end on it?

1) If the antenna is anywhere from 2' to 4' long, it may be a cellular antenna....especially if the cable coming from it is rather large (about 0.4" in diameter???)

The Amphenol 77175 connector is a "TNC" type connector, which is/was widely used for cellular antennas/cables....and, also used in many commercial/professional comm systems...
But, this is NOT very likely to be usable for Wi-Fi at all!!!
Sorry...

That connector should look like this:



2) If the antenna IS a cellular antenna, and is fed with large cable, I'd keep it and make use of a "cellular booster"....as having the mizzen mounted antenna is a great start (having the "inside" antenna mounted below decks, directly below this mizzen mounted antenna, would give you a very good cellular booster system....)






3) This part of the puzzle seems odd, and my Furuno FAX-408 WeFax has a standard SO-239 connector (which mates with the standard PL-259....), as does the Furuno FAX-30, etc...
But, Furuno did/does make an external "active" antenna for HF-reception (WeFax, etc.) and it might have used a TNC connector to the amp/power supply????
But, it seems doubtful that this is the case...

Originally Posted by autumnbreeze27

I believe it was setup for a Furuno Weatherfax. Could I adapt this to work with my Kaito 1103? or should I just get rid of it?

But, if it WAS the Furuno ext "active" wefax antenna, you would need to power it (12vdc) or connect it to a pre-amp, in order to make use of it with your Kaito 1103....
So, unless you find it is a cellular antenna (see above) my advice is to scrap it...



Fair winds..

John
s/v Annie Laurie

[Beausoleil]

Just because it may be a cellular antenna, it still may not be optimum. Cellular uses different spectrum based on the generation and technology.

The best way to install a high-gain WiFi antenna is to get an outdoor-rated or marine-rated access point like a Ubiquiti Bullet and mount it directly to the antenna base, and cable it using shielded Cat-6 ethernet cable rated for outdoor use. No need for a separate power wire - these units use PoE (Power over Ethernet), with a power injector located safely inside the boat.

[autumnbreeze27]

Ok I wasn't trying to focus so much on using it for wifi.

You're right the boat had a fancy powered antenna that was rail mounted that went with the weather fax.

So I'm not sure what this is. I found some shunt looking things in the engine room that had "motorola" hand written next to them, so maybe it's SSB/HF?

I'd love to use it as a cell phone booster. Would I be able to get one that would use that connector? Or would I have to cut it off and crimp on something different?

The antenna is white (fiberglass?), about 16" tall, 3/4" - 1" wide (guessing from a picture)

The cable is thin, about 1/4". I'll try and get a picture of it next time I'm at the boat.

[Nicholson58]

There are multitudes of antenna and jack adapters to be found on line. The issue is if the antenna you wish to re-purpose is suitable. Often the old antenna cable has too high an impedance. - Not a problem if its short.