SSB - Backstay antennae length/placement?

I have not read that they can be eliminated. I have seen many boats that do not use spacers which lead me to question whether they are important. My radio works well as configured so I have not made any changes. I agree that the spacers are a pain but I am keeping mine installed for now.

Hi, sorry for the delayed response.
Thinking all of the West Coast/Mexico cruising nets. At some point in the future the Pacific Seafarers net as well if we make it out that way.
So generally 3 - 4 - 7 - 8 - 14- 21 mhz off the top of my head. I know these are broad frequencies and not specific at this point.
We currently have an older Icom AH-2 tuner and I am not opposed to an upgrade....

Mike VA7 WBY

Thx, that makes sense. Still thinking of keeping the top at least 4' away from the VHF/AIS antennae though.

I found an online calculator for length and it looks like a total length of 30.5 feet should not cause any tuning problems. Only the 10M band will be compromised if the calculator is accurate. Can't see how to upload it in this forum.
Thx

Check out the bad lengths, to NOT use.

www.hamuniverse.com/randomwireantennalengths.html


And,

udel.edu/~mm/ham/randomWire/

Marine Bands are close to the HAM bands and if in trouble you can us any freq. that you need to.
There are ALWAYS Hams listening and the the best chance of help is often on the Ham Bands.
Only good Marine tuners should be used, ones that can tune your wire to the 2 mhz band

New Hope
W4SZZ