Been planning on buying a sailboat for some time and finally have.. now time to determine how to go about installing the Rangemaster on it..
My initial thoughts is to mount it in the cockpit in the back near where the outboard engine is so I can run the ground out one of the two little holes are which are there to allow any water to drain out if it should happen to enter the area.. and simply make the water the ground(?)
I don't have any pics on hand, but here are a couple from the same model boat that I found on the internet to illustrate what I mean..
Inside cockpit:
from the outside:
I know it looks like water would be coming in that hole, but two weeks ago traveled 80 miles over a day and a half, and not once did any water enter the cockpit.. however the ocean was calm down the intracoastal waterway during my trip.
Now the engine will be hanging in the transom, but I don't see how that would be making any difference. at least I don't think it makes any difference unless it's running.
Now the engine is a Honda 9.9 and it's manual, so it's not even connected to the battery at all except for a removable cord for charging the battery if it's running. the battery is simply used to power my running lights and interior lights. So the transmitter will be powered by 12v DC.
I'm probally going to elimate all my hardware proccessing gear and to doing it all on the laptop with software proccessing. - I haven't really figured it all out yet.
I've thought about having the transmitter grounded to one of the keel bolts inside, with the transmitter still mounted outside by the companionway door, but that would mean several feet run of ground lead.
Any advice any one? Particuarly Ken Norris, cause i think you have experience with the same situation.
If any one is interested I put a video up of the trip. but we didn't sail, none of us knew how to, so we motored the entire way! But I'll be learning to sail soon enough.
I don't think water itself makes a good ground. The keep would likely be better. Just shorten the overall antenna length to a 7 1/2 foot whip - the Rangemaster had no problems tuning a fiberglass whip I had that was around 90 inches in length.
There was a user on here several years ago that had a rangemaster on their Sail Boat, was it Tiny Harbor Radio? I distinctly remember their dolphin / whale logo.
Edit: It was Ken Norris with an SS Tran, they talked about it here http://www.part15.us/forum/part15-forums/general-discussion/sstran-and-rf-ground
You will be sorely disappointed with software processing if you have been used to hardware doing it. There will be latency, and a laptop just won't have the CPU power needed to do it well.
Artisan, You don't think the salt water by itself would be a good ground?.. Why not? Maybe I attached some kind of copper plate or something under water to the hull and grounded to that... but I really don't see how that would be much different. (?)
I assume you meant "keel" when you said "keep", but if I ground it to the keel bolts, then it means it would have to have a wire running about 6 foot and then to keep it out of the way of the cabin space it would have to make a couple 90 degree turns before reachiong the keel bolts.. If I could actually put the transmitter inside the boat, it could be right next to keel, and out of the way, but the cabin has 6 foot of head room, and I wouldn't want to cut a hole in the roof to stick the rest of the antenna through!
Of note:, I have always used a 102 fiberglass whip on the Rangemaster
Mighty, I'm familiar with Ken's post, his setup is a little different .. in that he had more to worry about with the electrical system and the engine, and shore power, etc. Mine will basically just be connected directly to the battery and that's it.. However it's not that different.
By the way, I think Tiny Harbor radio is also on a boat.. or was.
You're probally right about the software proccessing.. I don't know.. but I'm not going to have any other power besides the 12v system.. I just can't afford the extra $370 a month it would cost for me to have it docked at the marina where there's power. The boat anchored in the back river (I can afford free!)
Edit.. Wait a minute, Ken is Friday Harbor Tiny Radio!
Connecting to a few square feet of conducting surface immersed in sea water likely will provide a better (lower resistance) r-f ground reference than most Part 15 AM users can achieve using a connection to the "ground" pin of an a-c outlet, a water pipe, several ground rods buried in the earth, and even several radial conductors buried in the earth.
But in all of the above cases and in order to comply with FCC §15.219(b),* the length of the conducting path from the r-f ground terminal of the transmitter to its connection to that sailboat (or any other) FUNCTIONAL r-f ground reference, plus the "antenna" and its "feedline" may not exceed 3 meters.
Distressing as it may be to some, this is not an interpretation or an opinion, but a physical reality.
* for those wishing to do so
Thus.. If I mount the transmitter in the back of the cockpit as I was considering in my first post, and run the ground wire out the hole in the boats transom into the water then it should fall within the 3 meter rule.
Does the boat not have a generator? I'd just grab a honda generator with invertor and call it a day. Those little suckers run forever on a few gallons of gas, granted I don't know if they are rated for continuous use.
I bought the boat for $950, the motor for $500. A generator did not come with the sale, I probally get one later, but using an inverter is terribly inefficient.. more likely I'll go for some solar panels, and keep all electrical systems dependent on 12v operation setup. The engine does have a plug where I can attach to charge a battery at 6amps while it's running.
I used to have an 1969 Ford RV about 20 years ago that My girlfriend and I actually lived in for eight months, and one deep cell marine battery was enough to run the lights, tv, stereo, and fans for a full week before having to charge it again. the stove and hot water heater was gas. - With that experience in mind, I want to apply the same principle to the boat. It's cheap, simple, and effective.,, and silent!
Which reminds me.. I know that at lot of electronic devices actuall operate on 12v dc and have inverters built in the cabinet, I suppose I should see look at the schematics of my proccesing gear and see if I can bypass directly to the dc components for operation.
With many of the Sharp tv models, for example, they are actually 12v.. it's real simple with them, the inverter is in a brick on the power cord, you simply remove the cord and replace it with a plug directly to a 12v battery!.
And I know you will be
careful out there in the boat.
Brooce, WLP
Just to clarify, I'm not living on the boat, just looking to take advantage of the salt water since the boat enables me to mount the transmitter inches above the waterline.
Still hoping to hear from Ken Norris, since he has direct experience with a simular situation...
What would be the affect of using a dipole? A ground wouldn't really be required and this *might* prove better efficiency than a water ground. Take your three meters and put 1.5 as antenna, 1.5 as the other side of a dipole connected to the transmitter ground? Might be worth a test.
Consider a Procaster. Probably not in the plan to go buy a different transitter, but the Procaster comes with processing in it, with control of settings. Runs on the same 12V as the transmitter. Been running my Procaster for over 2 years and it sounds great with the built in processing. Great sound and 130+ 99- modulation peaks. Might find a used one.
Just a couple thoughts.
TIB
Tim, I suppose anything is worth a test, but keep in mind, I've never been much in the way of an engineer, just an average joe playing with pre-assembled toys.. But my understanding has always been that outside a gold or platnium based mountain of ground, that salt water is the most effective ground one could ever hope for... So it really throws me when you say a water ground would be a poor choice!
???
However, your mention of a Procaster and it's onboard proccessing reminded my that I already have a perfectly working SStran AMT-3000 that time and time again have used for quick, spare of the moment, impromptu set-ups!.. I can't believe it didn't even occur to me it might be a better choice to use on the boat than the Rangemater would be..
Wow.. talk about a mind block!
Well there ya go then. You'll get much better sound with the processing in the SStran.
I know nothing about sailboats or the use of salt water for ground. However, I Googled things like "rf ground for sailboat" and "salt water for rf ground" and no articles suggest using the water itself for a ground, and ost talk about building a mesh, or running copper tape, or a variety of other ways to create a ground. Of course these are in relation to a marine radio, but same concept I guess.
TIB