Last week (Friday) I purchased a new VHF antenna for the boat to go with my new VHF radio. I was not sure how old the previous antenna was so I thought it prudent to upgrade to a new one. West Marine had a sale last week and VHF antennas were some of the items on sale.

I purchased a new Shakespeare Mariner 8900 antenna, see link below:

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/shakespea ... r--6966071

Sale price is $167.99 30% off the regular $239.99. I feel that is a good buy. There are 4 antennas in the series, 8300, 8500, 8700 and 8900. With the sale price I decided to go with the top of the line antenna in this series.

The installation job was pretty straightforward. I cut the cord from the old antenna and removed it from the mount. I fed the new coax into the hole and taped it to the old coax to pull it through to the VHF. It uses a simple gold plated connection. I fed the coax into the connector, crimped it where needed and then I connected it to the radio.

I turned the radio on. Where before I only received 3 of 10 weather channel broadcasts I now receive 7 of 10 a definite improvement. I then called out for a radio check. After a couple of tries I got an answer back. I am in Bolles Harbor (Monroe Michigan) I got a call back from Rescue Marine in Marblehead Ohio. I got out my chart to check the distance. He is 35 miles away from my location. He did say there was a bit of static and I also from him but I could clearly hear him and he me from 35 miles away. There is a bit of land and buildings between me and Lake Erie and the same for him so I am definitely happy with this new antenna so far.

I can't wait to get out on the open lake and see just how good it really is.