Maritime mobile amateur radio
There is no requirement to keep a log of calls, but a written record of information about frequencies, times, operators and their callsigns can be valuable.
These include power supply, RF earth, antenna design and EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) with other electronic equipment aboard.
On a yacht with twin backstays, if insulators are placed in both of them, and they are fed from the masthead, they may be usable as an "inverted vee" avoiding the need to feed the antenna against ground.
For VHF and UHF operation, one option is to mount a small Yagi antenna to a pole 1–2 m (3–6 ft) long and haul this to the masthead using a flag halyard.
If the halyard is correctly knotted to the middle and bottom of the pole, it is easy enough to make the antenna project above the clutter at the masthead into clear air.
Repeated loss of signal due to rolling and pitching would make it impractical for useful communication at sea anyway.
It is also necessary from the points of view of safety and EMC considerations on any radio transmitter installation on a boat or ship.
While it might seem that a good, thick wire is all that is needed, for large RF currents it is usually recommended that copper grounding tape is used.
[citation needed] The key pathway from the ATU of a single-ended antenna system to the earthing plate, or the hull earth-point, should be as short and as straight as possible.
There is not much that the installer can do about the losses in, and the efficiencies of, the transceiver, the ATU, the antenna or its feed, but extra effort put into the efficiency of the earthing paths will pay much bigger dividends, in terms of radiated power and freedom from EMC problems later, than any other single aspect of the installation.
It should be a specialist, high-voltage insulated, single-core wire and it should be rigidly mounted, well away from any other wiring, outside of any conducting faraday cage, in the shortest, straightest possible route to the point where it will connect to the external antenna, be that a whip or an insulated part of the standing rigging.
As discussed above, good earthing is essential in the installation of transmitting equipment, and good RF management will also pay dividends in terms of the ability to use other electronic equipment while transmitting, without damage to the other gear, or debilitating interference in the other gear during transmissions.
