Thanks for all the inputs. The radials vs copper strap issue appears to have the worked the SSB gurus into a frenzy. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but Keith's plan sounds pretty good.
Keith, I'm leaning toward a whip antenna also. I saved an article from a Waterway
Radio &
Cruising Club regarding a whip antenna made by Barker & Williamson Co, 603 Cidco Road, Cocoa, Fl. Article recommended their AP-10A antenna highly. I'm also thinking about something like CaptJohn mentioned. I saw an antenna imbedded in a dacron
halyard that you can secure to the
mast at the top. That would be an easy solution and get the antenna up higher. I'll try to find the guy that was selling it, Dr John Gregory, to get some more details. On my last boat, I was having SSB problems and as part of trouble shooting process, I hooked up a dipole antenna (just a long wire attached to a halyard) and ran it up the mast. The propagation was as good or better with the plain wire than it was with my back stay antenna. So based on that, I think a wire in a
halyard would
work fine. We will probably go with the
ICOM M802 also. I had the M710 on my last boat. It worked well, but the tuning was user hostile. The M802 appears to have
solved that problem and it should be a neater installation at the nav station.
Keith, we would be happy to show you Cat Tales any time. Give me a call or e-mail whenever its convenient (727) 822-5069 or svsynergy "at" hotmail.com (replace "at" with "@", I'm trying to keep the lid on junk mail).