This will work great and I enjoyed your video, you only have one issue. It looks like you totally submerged the copper tubing. The saltwater ground plane effect only works on about the top 75mm of the water. You dropped the wire and copper right through it. Bring it up to the surface and give it a try.
That is very entertaining, thought you would have got a clicky light blow torch though :-) LOVE the crimper, is that something you had or did you just get it, where from I NEED One :-) I sort of dont understand why it is not working, maybe you need more than One ground plane radial. Get a big Copper plate and screw it to the deck of the boat? Hope someone can help you out.
I've had the hydraulic crimps for a couple of years. Got them for big terminals on the boat batteries. Maybe copper sheet is the answer to get the surface area up. I dunno. I'll have a look on the VNA tomorrow if the weather ain't too bad. Forecast isn't looking good though. Doh!
@@nathanw851 Good luck. Everything points towards it should work from what I understand. You say about the radials rotting if you chuck them in the drink? I would be tempted to chuck them all overboard (still attached to the ground plate of course) and see what happens, the wire is pretty cheap even if you have to throw it away. Another thought, can we get NON insulated Copper wire. Maybe that would be the best stuff to chuck overboard????????
I would try lots of individual bits of the copper heating stuff rather than in a roll, or at least extend it a bit. What about running the copper heating stuff around the perimeter of the boat? All ideas :-)
This will work great and I enjoyed your video, you only have one issue. It looks like you totally submerged the copper tubing. The saltwater ground plane effect only works on about the top 75mm of the water. You dropped the wire and copper right through it. Bring it up to the surface and give it a try.
Wrap the ground wire around one of those long round poll toys and let float on the water make the wire about 30 ft long, number 10 bare ground wire
Add a common mode choke about 2 meters from the antenna
That is very entertaining, thought you would have got a clicky light blow torch though :-) LOVE the crimper, is that something you had or did you just get it, where from I NEED One :-) I sort of dont understand why it is not working, maybe you need more than One ground plane radial. Get a big Copper plate and screw it to the deck of the boat? Hope someone can help you out.
I've had the hydraulic crimps for a couple of years. Got them for big terminals on the boat batteries. Maybe copper sheet is the answer to get the surface area up. I dunno. I'll have a look on the VNA tomorrow if the weather ain't too bad. Forecast isn't looking good though. Doh!
@@nathanw851 Good luck. Everything points towards it should work from what I understand. You say about the radials rotting if you chuck them in the drink? I would be tempted to chuck them all overboard (still attached to the ground plate of course) and see what happens, the wire is pretty cheap even if you have to throw it away. Another thought, can we get NON insulated Copper wire. Maybe that would be the best stuff to chuck overboard????????
I would try lots of individual bits of the copper heating stuff rather than in a roll, or at least extend it a bit. What about running the copper heating stuff around the perimeter of the boat? All ideas :-)
Foam pool swim noodles
I lived on a boat a long time. Maybe hop on land when you solder. Fire on a boat is no fun