Standard Horizon Radio Problem

[boxstereye]

I was underway listening to a weather report on my 12 yr old Standard Horizon Radio when it suddenly stopped receiving. I turned it on and off and it would not receive on any channel. (lights on) I tested it with my hand held and it would not transmit either. My radio is hooked up to an antenna splitter that shares the antenna with my AIS. I carry an emergency Shakespeare Antenna and a very, very old Regency VHF that came with my boat. I checked the AIS transmit signal with my cell phone app and it stopped transmitting at the same time as well, but the AIS receive continues to work?!. So I figured it was an antenna. I hooked up my emergency antenna to the splitter and the radio did not receive or transmit. I hooked it up directly to the radio and it did not transmit. I hooked my old radio up to the built in antenna and the emergency antenna and it worked with both. Curiously, the AIS transmit also does not work with the emergency antenna attached to the splitter. I guess I did not attach the antennas directly to the AIS unit ( new raymarine unit), but I will do that next. I also have not tried the radio with a different power supply.

So it appears to me that I have two simultaneous problems. Unless the same thing caused both problems. I know in the old cheap CB radio days that a short in the COAX could blow out your transmitter, but usually did not affect the reception.

Penny for your thoughts

David
Born To Run
1983 Wauquiez Pretorien

[donradcliffe]

Most AIS transponders are made by the same company, and can use proAIS software for diagnositics. ProAIS will give you the SWR of the antenna, which is very useful in situations like yours.

[boxstereye]

I will try this tonight and report back... Thanks!

[AnchorageGuy]

David, Take the antenna off the splitter. Connect it directly to the radio. Does it work? Connect the antenna directly to the AIS. Does it work properly? Come back and tell us. Keep in mind that the transmit on your AIS is not as often as the receive. If your at a fixed location, anchored or dock, it will only transmit every 3 minutes. Chuck

[continuouswave]

Originally Posted by boxstereye

I was underway listening to a weather report on my 12 yr old ...

Stop right there. Using a 12-year old VHF Marine Band radio is the first problem you should remedy.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by continuouswave

Stop right there. Using a 12-year old VHF Marine Band radio is the first problem you should remedy.

I think mine is a lot older than that, and yet it seems to work well

[continuouswave]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I think mine is a lot older than that, and yet it seems to work well

Maybe you should write to the FCC and ask them to lift their ban on the importation, sale, or installation of any VHF Marine Band radios that are not DSC CLASS-D compliant.

I really don't care about malfunctions of 12-year-old radios. New radios that are much better cost $150. Don't waste time with repair of 12-year-old radios or re-installation of them--in violation of FCC rules. A working VHF Marine Band radio is primary safety gear. What possible merit is there in repair of 12-year-old radios?

[hellosailor]

A 12 year old Standard Horizon is like a twelve year old DC3. Barely broken in and good for twenty or thirty more years with no worry.

It isn't a Midland or mass-market junk.

At this point, testing the VHF and the AIS separately, on dedicated antennas, is the next step. A separate question is whether the switch is working, or caused the radio failure by failing, i.e. allowing the AIS to transmit into the VHF. That's something probably best done with a multimeter, to test out the two legs for the radios and see if anything has shorted out between them.

Although it really could be simpler to just replace the splitter, put up a second antenna, and keep the two isolated in the future. Maybe not as elegant, but quicker, simpler, cheaper (?) and more reliable.

[clyde]

splitters don`t [normaly] work on both freqencies! work well on one or the other, but not both...get a seperate ant for the ais. i`ve got older standard rigs, and they work! had a problem with one, called standard in california, got authorization, etc, it was back in a week, and worked fine! i`ve found standard to be very good on their repair service...when only recieving, just a piece of #22 copper wire [with the plastic coating] will work fine! attach it to the mast [up/down, more wire recieves better, open/cut end down] a plug for the wire to connect to the music/ais reciever can be gotten at most any radio shack outlet! transmitting is different, the ant, or wire being used, should be the the propper length to operate on the frequency it`s being used on..one can check a radios output with a watt, or swr meter...clyde

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by continuouswave

Maybe you should write to the FCC and ask them to lift their ban on the importation, sale, or installation of any VHF Marine Band radios that are not DSC CLASS-D compliant.

I really don't care about malfunctions of 12-year-old radios. New radios that are much better cost $150. Don't waste time with repair of 12-year-old radios or re-installation of them--in violation of FCC rules. A working VHF Marine Band radio is primary safety gear. What possible merit is there in repair of 12-year-old radios?

I didn't know that, are you saying old radios are dis-allowed, or that you just can't sell or install them? I'm almost certain that mine is 27 yrs old, but works great and seeing as how it's inside of the boat, I don't know why it won't last almost forever.
As long as it's legal I see no reason to replace it

[MarkJ]

I'm with ContinuousWave... New radios are very inexpensive. Old ones don't have DSC and you could sail straight past children drowning because you have old kit and can't hear the alarm.

Like several other modern components you don't need them, but others may need you to have them. Other peoples lives depend on you...

[hellosailor]

clyde, splitters work for an antenna line, not a frequency or frequencies. And since the AIS frequencies happen to be IN the rest of the standard marine VHF channels, the same antenna is used for all of it, so there's no problem of "different" frequencies for any part of the antenna system.

Mark-
Frankly, I congratulate you on being willing to spend an extra hundred bucks or two just in case someone's children are drowning near your boat. But personally...I'm just going to keep the old radio and hope those kids know how to either swim, or shout. My budget just isn't up to the "save the world" level. But if their parents want to buy me a new radio, I'll be glad to hook it up.(G)

[a64pilot]

My old boat had a radio with DSC, as far as I know no kind of alarm ever went off in a couple of years I had the boat and I was always in a busy area full of idiots constantly running over each other, capsizing their boats etc. are these alarms actually that rare, or was something broken?

[boxstereye]

Thanks for all the comments:

I got down to the boat today and with my emergency antenna, the VHF lights were on, but there was no transmit or receive. This is with the splitter out of the picture. The same antenna works with my ancient Regency VHF with the red LED lights and only a hand full of stations.

When I hooked the emergency antenna directly up to the AIS, it also did not work. The green light is on, but no transmission. (I had it on for 30 minutes and could not see my boat on any of the marine traffic websites.)

So I am perplexed. It was all working fine on a calm sunny day when it suddenly went out on me.

Thoughts?

[AnchorageGuy]

Originally Posted by boxstereye

Thanks for all the comments:

I got down to the boat today and with my emergency antenna, the VHF lights were on, but there was no transmit or receive. This is with the splitter out of the picture. The same antenna works with my ancient Regency VHF with the red LED lights and only a hand full of stations.

When I hooked the emergency antenna directly up to the AIS, it also did not work. The green light is on, but no transmission. (I had it on for 30 minutes and could not see my boat on any of the marine traffic websites.)

So I am perplexed. It was all working fine on a calm sunny day when it suddenly went out on me.

Thoughts?

The marine traffic websites are not necessarily real time and if one of their ground antennas is not anywhere near you, you're not going to show up anywhere. You need to test on a nearby plotter or computer to be sure. It may be working fine. Chuck