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VHF Radio Install

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kozzy

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Hello all, new to this forum and to Pontoons. Just went from a Sea Ray Sundancer 300 to a Bennington Tri Toon. I would like to add a VHF radio, and was looking for where the most common place to mount the large antenna would be, that is out of the way. Standard 8 ' probably. Dont have an arch on this boat like my Dancer had. thanks in advance
 
I use a Hand Held VHF
 
Welcome to the family and the forum! I think you're really going to like the switch. Post some pictures when you have a chance...
 
Presumably along the back of the pontoon somewhere, but that may be a little dependant on your floor plan layout. Maybe provide the floor plan layout, and someone on here with it can give some good advice. Personally, I might lean in the direction that Jack said above. Would a hand held and no long antennae to worry about meet your needs, or do you need something more robust? Either way best wishes on it, and congratulations on the new pontoon.
 
kozzy said:
Hello all, new to this forum and to Pontoons. Just went from a Sea Ray Sundancer 300 to a Bennington Tri Toon. I would like to add a VHF radio, and was looking for where the most common place to mount the large antenna would be, that is out of the way. Standard 8 ' probably. Dont have an arch on this boat like my Dancer had. thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Unfortunately there used to be some good pictures in the Gallery section of this forum, but they are no longer. Two members did an install of this previously, SSC and bcpnick. If you do a search for antenna and go way back you can find them, not really any help without the pictures. Anyway, bcpnick mounted his on the bimini which seemed to work well in that it didn't interfere with the playpen / mooring cover. I was able to find one post that shows a picture of it mounted (scroll down a bit), hopefully this helps.

http://club.benningtonmarine.com/threads/the-ice-is-off-in-utah.3478/#post-39889
 
Yeah, pics would be great. I love the idea of a handheld, but they dont just have the distance / power i need. Coming from a larger cruiser, we are used to the long antennas and the distance they provide. Even with that, I have found myself lacking comms wise. While on the water, all we use is the radio. A handheld i fear will just not give me even half the reach I need. I was hoping to get a smaller antenna than 8 ', and a high power radio to go with it to hopefully do the job. I have the 23 Swingback floorplan. Id post pics, but the boat is not here from the factory yet.
 
I haven't found anything yet, I do have a handheld, im still trying to figure out s plan though. with the weather the way it has been, i haven't spent much time thinking about locations. I need to mount my flag pole and my SCUBA tank rack as well..
 
A handheld on the water will do better than on land namely due to lack of obstructions. Unless you are going great distances offshore, chances are someone will be in range you need it.

Unfortunately most pontoon boats don't have any "high" mounting positions other than their bimini frames. If someone has a tower, then that's a different story. Either case I'm not sure an 8' long omni is going to be ideal there.

One of my friends has an NMO trunk lip mount installed on the front of his playpen and runs the feedline back to the helm, where his VHF radio is installed in-dash.
 
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