I am looking for a quality antenna that I can mount on the plastic roof of my Polaris Ranger xp900 side by side so I can talk to my buddy from shore while he is out on his boat and we are working our nets and for general communication with other boaters. I bought a permanant mount marine vhf (Uniden 415) for this use(wanted better range than a handheld) but decent thru roof antennas are scarce. My questions are: can I do this, what are the legal issues, can I use a land based vhf antenna to talk on marine channels, if so what is a quality roof mount antenna and where can I get one(I would like an all black antenna with black stainless whip around 36", I really like the look of the Browning 167 but the whip is too short), what features should I be looking for in an antenna to do this, what mounts, coax, cable are the best, being I will be mounting thru the plastic roof of my Ranger, will I need a no plane antenna, what does NMO stand for, what gain, wave lengthe etc, should I be looking for? I would really appreciate any help with my problem. Thanks, CasePatriot
What you want to do is not legal. There are no provisions to the rules to allow for a vehicle to communicate with ships on US VHF marine channels.
Just wondering , how do Yacht Clubs, Marinas etc get away with it then.
they even have golf carts with radios in them at some marinas in Florida
They ate operating illegally and need reported. There are selected channels for shore bases to communicate with their fleets; but this is very limited.