Marine antenna

B A R R Y wrote:
Folks,

My co-owner an I are thinking of doing some USCG Aux. stuff. To do
this, we need a marine band antenna on the bottom of the aircraft. We
already have an existing antenna connector and internal cable on the
bottom that is unused. We'd like to simply add the proper antenna and
cable, and use a marine handheld in the observer's (right seat) hands.

Questions:

Can we cut a wire VHF-Air antenna that we already own to work with a
marine band (higher than VHF-Air) handheld?

Yes, a Motorla or GE two-way radio wire whip antenna mounted in the
center of a removable 4" inspection cover works. Cut the whip to 17.2".
I have one cut to 19.5" (2M Ham Band) on my Skylane, and it has been
there for going on 20 years.

Other suggestions?

Can we have a local avionics tech simply add a BNC to the right side
of the panel to use with the handheld and a BNC-BNC patch cord?

Yes, that works, but you will have a hard time hearing the 2" speaker
in the handheld, especially if you are wearing aircraft headphones. If
you have an AUX/ENTERTAINMENT input on your audio panel or intercom,
wire the earphone jack on the HT to the aircraft audio system. The
ambient noise in the cockpit may also make your transmitted audio hard
to understand. If so, turn down the MIC gain in the HT, and then speak
close/loud into the HT.

MikeM

BTW- there is no need to mount the antenna on the belly. It works just
as well on top, and it is less likely to get damaged during ground ops.
If the existing antenna is a steel wire type, it is probably about 23"
long. You can cut it down to 17". If it is a fiberglass antenna, you
cannot cut it down...

mikem wrote:

Yes, that works, but you will have a hard time hearing the 2" speaker
in the handheld, especially if you are wearing aircraft headphones.

The observer operates the HT, via an earphone under his flight headset.
As the pilot I would remain on the air radios. From what I
understand, any direction from the ground would be relayed to me via the
intercom.

Unfortunately, we don't have an aux or available open position on our
comm panel.

mikem wrote:
BTW- there is no need to mount the antenna on the belly. It works just
as well on top, and it is less likely to get damaged during ground ops.

The USCG requires the belly antenna. It's not my idea.