I received my Technician class license in October of 2005. I started out operating marine mobile with a HT and an external antenna. Since then I have improved the station aboard the sea going barge I work on.

            We do not have a lot for marine commercial communications on board. We have an Icom vhf marine radio and a cell phone and intermittent internet. Our internet is provided by a Raven-x modem. It basically uses cell towers to provide us with internet service, which usually works up to around 7 miles offshore. We also have 2 Icom HT’s on board. The amateur radio station that I carry with me when I go out and carry home with me includes an Icom 706 Mark II G, LDG Z100 auto tuner, Astron 30 amp power supply, and various meters and connection cables. I usually carry different vhf/uhf radios with me. It seems I always just grab whatever is lying around. Most of the radio time I put in is on HF and 2 meter SSB anyway. I carry the station in a water proof box that is 21 inches by 19 inches by 8 inches and is made by Storm.

            For antennas on VHF and UHF I have a MFJ magnet mount on top of the chiller unit for FM and I have a Diamond F200 2 meter mono band mounted to a pipe on top of the living quarters. For VHF and UHF SSB I have a loop antenna made by the gentleman in Tennessee, I can’t recall his call sign, but recognize him when I see him. HF is a very different story. There are so many antennas out there it is not even funny. I bought a book on how to operate maritime mobile, but it did not cover a lot for a sea going barge. I started out with a dipole. I then made an end fed zepp and then on to a random wire. I found the random wire performed a lot better than the dipole or the end fed zepp. I tried several configurations for the random wire and the best configuration I ever had was when I put it in an upside down L configuration. It went from the stern where the living quarters are to the bow where the mast is located. From stern short mast to bow mast is  270 feet then dropped down about 10 feet then ran back to midship, about 120 feet. So at one time I had about 400 feet of wire out. It worked really well. That was until we were in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and we were caught in 20 to 26 foot seas and the temperatures were down around 0. The barge sustained some damage to equipment on deck and well the wire antenna came down except the 270 foot section (I thought that since this section stayed up in that kind of weather that I would leave it in that configuration). That is what I am currently using right now. I did install a Tar Heel model 75 screw driver antenna on the chiller unit. It did not start out that way. That screwdriver has been all over the living quarters. I started out with a 32 inch whip and a capacitance hat on it and mounted it just above the living quarters. That gave it a height of about 7 foot above the deck. Well, later on I decided to move it on a short light mast and that brought it to about 15 foot above deck, but the funny thing is that it would not work worth a hoot there. I brought it back down to about 7 foot above deck and 2 foot above the living quarters and it went back to working. Later on I added a 102 inch whip instead of the hat and 32 inch whip. It performed much better with those. I then relocated it to the chiller unit and ran a 12 gauge stranded wire to the chiller copper coils. When I did this it got it about 10 feet above the deck but 5 feet above the living quarters and worked really well. Over time I have compared these two antennas side by side. The random wire and the screwdriver seem to both have positive points. I usually swap back and forth and which ever one I hear the best on is the one I use. Half the time it is the screwdriver and half the time it is the random wire. The screwdriver seems to work really well on 80, 40, 20, and 17 meters. The Random wire works the best on 10, 12, 15, and 60 meters. That is not always the case, but more often than not that is what antenna I end up using on those bands. I can operate 160 meters on the random wire, but since it was shortened it really does not tune that well, and I can’t make as many contacts on it as I once did.