Help--SSB setup with antenna/ground

[RunningCool]

Previous ground was to thru bolt to dynaplate. Guess that was bad.
Antenna ground is KISS.
Seams to be good.
But have dynaplate and about 10ft of copper strap attached to that from previous owner.

[S/V Illusion]

Originally Posted by RunningCool

Thx guys.
So, went thru everything. Ground radio to engine block and wham was able to transmit on the marine net to controller in VA.
I am in Boot Key Harbor. Fl Keys.
He said I was about a 3 on his side, whatever that meant.
Getting closer I think.
I put ferrite chokes on ground. Only had 2
What do u guys recommend for ferrite chokes and where.
I can finally talk to people, was getting pretty lonely there.��

Stray RF might cause some issues to necessitate installation of ferrites but you have described no problem for which they might make any difference. The radio didn’t “cut out” because of lack of ferrites. It certainly sounds like it was a bad ground connection.

There are different types of ferrite collars. No clue which you used or what size but there is no reason here to think that has anything to do with your problem regardless of type/size.

[S/V Illusion]

Originally Posted by RunningCool

Previous ground was to thru bolt to dynaplate. Guess that was bad.
Antenna ground is KISS.
Seams to be good.
But have dynaplate and about 10ft of copper strap attached to that from previous owner.

Again, a DC ground which you changed has absolutely nothing to do with an antenna counterpoise such as the KISS thing. That’s not a ground! Stop confusing the two.

[BocaIII]

Suggest you connect kiss counterpoise to the Dyna plate then to the sea coupler ground.
Use low power to tune then switch to high power

If that doesn't fix the problem then it could be location of the main antenna.

Jack
W4GRJ

[MicHughV]

Regardless of whether you've ironed out some bugs...do yourself a favor and get a Ham radio for the reason's I've outlined above.

btw..a 3 signal report basically means understandable with considerable difficulty.
ie, not very good.

[MJH]

Originally Posted by RunningCool

Rig.. SEA 222 that was rebuilt by Doug of seacomcorp.
Antenna tuner sea 1612 that passed testing byDoug.
KISS counterpoise.
Boat. Rafiki double-ender. With large dynaplate installed. But not hooked to ground. Have been trying kiss becuz
1. Rookie, thought it was not good.
2. Maybe fell for kiss system.
Have 34ft S.S. lifeline with crimped loops at end.
Have 6 ft of GTO line from that to tuner.

Problem, everything I key mike it reboots. Shuts off and restarts.
Doug says power radiating Problem
Should I install swr meter?
Go back to dynaplate?
Receiving is no problem, getting good signal when marine net on 14300 is on air.
Just can't transmit.
Thx

Glad to hear that Doug is still at SEA Com Corp. He Repaired and Tuned my SEA 2250-00 control head, 2251 transceiver, 1635 antenna tuner, and replaced the SEA MIC-0156-M9 microphone before I departed on my Hawaii roundtrip in 2016. It worked great for the entire trip and Pacific Seafarers Net (14.300Mhz) said we were the best of all their contacts during position reports. I did not use it for GRIBs as I don't have a Pactor modem, only NOAA Weather Service broadcasts and daily position reports.

I took the entire unit to the company (Doug at Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043) in preparation for the trip and waited a few hours while he worked on and tuned the components. Once back home and on the boat my contacts were marginal at best during my tests and I was concerned. I used the KISS-SSB ground plane system (counterpoise) and spoke with owner Carl about it. He said all would improve once off the coast into big water and he was correct.

I'm not a wire-head so can't talk specifics. But working with Doug to get the unit working was the key for me as I had to make a couple of slight modifications to get the unit working correctly because the previous owner did not have the unit set up properly, the usual problem with SSB. I'm sure the new rigging and insulated backstay helped. I used Ancor #150102 GTO 15, 14AWG, high voltage cable attached to the backstay with a Split Bolt connector from Home Depot plus three-inch rubber standoff spacers as shown on the ICOM web site.

Power radiating problem sounds like antenna issue to me. Your using a lifeline? Talk to Doug.

Best of luck with the SEA 222. I know it is even older than mine as a previous owner had one on my boat before the current 2250 unit. I found the operating manual onboard and sold it on craigslist to a guy in Alaska.

[MicHughV]

It's true that most backstay antenna's are not optimal, for a variety of reasons, like interference from other stays, the mast, the angle at which the back stay slopes and on and on.
But what to do as options are limited.

Powerboats, not having a mast, generally use a 23' whip. I've seen these on some sailboats, but the upper part of the whip will go thru' some wild gyrations as the boat gets' tossed around, negating their use.

Having a sailboat with two masts also complicates matters.

I have found that running an independent long wire to the mast as far away from other rigging works best.
Again, I've seen some ingenious attempts at doing this.

I've repeated myself countless times on this, but get the assistance of your local Ham club out to your boat for a looksee and see what they can come up with that will be both practical and useful.

I have a lot of experience with just an independent long wire and had no problem pushing a signal out 1,000's of miles.

Mind you, I had some assistance. My girlfriend at the time, had a dad that was an avid old time Ham. His backyard was festooned with antenna's of every description. Depending on where I was or would be, he'd let me know what frequency and what time we should connect. I don't think we ever missed a sked as he was determined to keep track of his daughter's whereabouts.

This is important to note that Maritime nets, etc, usually come on at set times of the day at set frequencies, but countless other options and nets exist. You'll need a file folder to keep up with it all.

You have to spend some time on the air to search this all out. Getting back to the Ham club, there will be members there who will be glad to set up a sked with you and also pass you along to other Ham's as you traipse around the globe.

In difficult areas, I would sometimes temporarily turn the stern of my boat towards the other station, as this gave a clear, unimpeded path for signal transmission, often making the difference of connecting or not.

Anyway, don't want to take up all your time here. Get hooked up with fellow Hams is the best advice I can give you.

[S/V Illusion]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

It's true that most backstay antenna's are not optimal, for a variety of reasons, like interference from other stays, the mast, the angle at which the back stay slopes and on and on.
But what to do as options are limited.

Powerboats, not having a mast, generally use a 23' whip. I've seen these on some sailboats, but the upper part of the whip will go thru' some wild gyrations as the boat gets' tossed around, negating their use.

Having a sailboat with two masts also complicates matters.

I have found that running an independent long wire to the mast as far away from other rigging works best.
Again, I've seen some ingenious attempts at doing this.

I've repeated myself countless times on this, but get the assistance of your local Ham club out to your boat for a looksee and see what they can come up with that will be both practical and useful.

I have a lot of experience with just an independent long wire and had no problem pushing a signal out 1,000's of miles.

Mind you, I had some assistance. My girlfriend at the time, had a dad that was an avid old time Ham. His backyard was festooned with antenna's of every description. Depending on where I was or would be, he'd let me know what frequency and what time we should connect. I don't think we ever missed a sked as he was determined to keep track of his daughter's whereabouts.

This is important to note that Maritime nets, etc, usually come on at set times of the day at set frequencies, but countless other options and nets exist. You'll need a file folder to keep up with it all.

You have to spend some time on the air to search this all out. Getting back to the Ham club, there will be members there who will be glad to set up a sked with you and also pass you along to other Ham's as you traipse around the globe.

In difficult areas, I would sometimes temporarily turn the stern of my boat towards the other station, as this gave a clear, unimpeded path for signal transmission, often making the difference of connecting or not.

Anyway, don't want to take up all your time here. Get hooked up with fellow Hams is the best advice I can give you.

A few of us here are experienced hams and have provided some good advice and guidance. No telling what he will get from arbitrarily soliciting advice from someone who might know nothing about boat systems and just passed his multiple guess test.

[windcastle1]

Jammer is right. Your radio is rebooting because your voltage is dropping because of a weak battery, wires to small or possibly a bad connection or a combination of all three.

[pendragon]

Originally Posted by RunningCool

Rig.. SEA 222 that was rebuilt by Doug of seacomcorp.
Antenna tuner sea 1612 that passed testing byDoug.
KISS counterpoise.
Boat. Rafiki double-ender. With large dynaplate installed. But not hooked to ground. Have been trying kiss becuz
1. Rookie, thought it was not good.
2. Maybe fell for kiss system.
Have 34ft S.S. lifeline with crimped loops at end.
Have 6 ft of GTO line from that to tuner.

Problem, everything I key mike it reboots. Shuts off and restarts.
Doug says power radiating Problem
Should I install swr meter?
Go back to dynaplate?
Receiving is no problem, getting good signal when marine net on 14300 is on air.
Just can't transmit.
Thx

Transmitting on14300 is NOT designated as a MARINE frequency--> Only HAM radio.
You can't XMITon 14300 on a Marine SSB, only RECEIVE



ITU Designated Simplex Frequencies

• 2 MHz (2000 kHz - 2850 kHz) marine band: ...
• 4 MHz (4000 kHz - 4438 kHz) marine band: ...
• 6 MHz (6200 kHz - 6525 kHz) marine band: ...
• 8 MHz (8000 kHz - 8815 kHz) marine band: ...
• 12 MHz / 13 MHz (12330 kHz - 13200 kHz) marine band: ...
• 16 MHz / 17 MHz (16460 kHz - 17360 kHz) marine band:

[stormalong]

Originally Posted by pendragon

Transmitting on14300 is NOT designated as a MARINE frequency--> Only HAM radio.
You can't XMITon 14300 on a Marine SSB, only RECEIVE



ITU Designated Simplex Frequencies

• 2 MHz (2000 kHz - 2850 kHz) marine band: ...
• 4 MHz (4000 kHz - 4438 kHz) marine band: ...
• 6 MHz (6200 kHz - 6525 kHz) marine band: ...
• 8 MHz (8000 kHz - 8815 kHz) marine band: ...
• 12 MHz / 13 MHz (12330 kHz - 13200 kHz) marine band: ...
• 16 MHz / 17 MHz (16460 kHz - 17360 kHz) marine band:

Although primitive by today's standards the SEA 222 can be programmed for a frequency outside of the marine HF SSB bands.

[BocaIII]

Send me an email to w4grj@arrl.net
I can help you fix it...have done a dozen ssb installs on boats
Jack

[j.g.evans]

Re: ground
Your keel is a great ground if you can access a keel bolt. Even an encapsulated lead keel is great. The lead makes up one plate of a capacitor with the water the second.

I made a good ground by lying sheets of copper against the hull under an aft bed. I spot tack soldered the sheets together to make a large plate of a capacitor. This will not work if your hull is balsa cored. Since this copper plate can be isolated there will be no DC current flow avoiding galvanic action.

[R Hutcheson]

Another take on the issue from someone who spent a significant amount of time and money getting SSB working before leaving the states. I would not do it again. There are simply not enough people monitoring the frequencies anymore to make them useful, unless you are or intend to become a very knowledgeable and dedicated user.

Garmin InReach is a low cost and effective solution, Starlink is just amazing, and there are no doubt, other satellite based technologies that provide much better reliability and utility than SSB.

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by j.g.evans

Re: ground
Your keel is a great ground if you can access a keel bolt. Even an encapsulated lead keel is great. The lead makes up one plate of a capacitor with the water the second.

If you make a direct connection to a keel bolt, you will cause electrolysis problems. I made a homebrew capacitor out of copper foil and plastic bag, and it worked fine for years.