# VHF Radio Issues



## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

I have a lowrance VHF radio on my boat and it will turn on and has power and will change channels. However it does not pick up any signal. I had it on Erie a couple months ago and was near a pack of boats and could hear guys talking on their radios and from other boats but no matter what channel I was on I would not get anything. Is it possible that I have a bad antenna or a bad connection? My other concern is I had a Structure Scan unit installed and it is pretty close to the radio. Is it possible that it is blocking the signal or interfering with it?

Being down in Cincinnati not many people use radios down here so I can't just go to the local lake and try and listen in on others to see if different things are working. I am coming back up to Erie in September so trying to get it worked out before then.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

could be a bad antenna or the end connector could be installed incorrectly. believe this or not but we broke a fan belt and tried to get help with our radio and we could hear other boats but they couldn't hear us. we was able to contact the cg and got a tow. but my antenna had went bad right after our boat broke down. im still using the same radio but bought another antenna.

if you know someone that has a radio and antenna you could hook up your radio to there antenna and see if it works. if you need another antenna get a good one you'll be glad you did. I bought a Shakespeare 5399 9 1/2'. but a 5225 xp or xt 8' is a great 8' antenna.
sherman


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## BRED (Jan 26, 2012)

I had similar issue , I have a handheld radio with a 3" antenna and it was picking up alot of talking and big radio with 8' antenna was picking up very little,long story short bad 8' antenna . The internet shows a few ways of checking,my antenna had a dead short .


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## FAB (May 26, 2013)

fishdealer04 said:


> I have a lowrance VHF radio on my boat and it will turn on and has power and will change channels. However it does not pick up any signal. I had it on Erie a couple months ago and was near a pack of boats and could hear guys talking on their radios and from other boats but no matter what channel I was on I would not get anything. Is it possible that I have a bad antenna or a bad connection? My other concern is I had a Structure Scan unit installed and it is pretty close to the radio. Is it possible that it is blocking the signal or interfering with it?
> 
> Being down in Cincinnati not many people use radios down here so I can't just go to the local lake and try and listen in on others to see if different things are working. I am coming back up to Erie in September so trying to get it worked out before then.



When you turn the squelch knob do you get static feed in the speaker, if not then you probably just have a speaker wire off or some way have muted the speaker.


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## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

I'll have to try it and see. I know when I turned it on up on the big lake I went through every channel and never got a single sound or static or anything. I will check all the connections and see if everything is hooked up and possibly see about getting another antenna.


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## FAB (May 26, 2013)

fishdealer04 said:


> I'll have to try it and see. I know when I turned it on up on the big lake I went through every channel and never got a single sound or static or anything. I will check all the connections and see if everything is hooked up and possibly see about getting another antenna.


Also , check to make sure the unit is not in transmit mode, indicating a stuck microphone , you won't hear anything when that happens. There should be some kind of light or indication on the screen for this.


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## EyeCatchEm (Jan 6, 2014)

Remove the antenna connection from the back of the radio and put a screwdriver on it, should get some static and that'll tell you if its the antenna. Worked for me.


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## fishdealer04 (Aug 27, 2006)

Thanks for the tips guys. I am going to give them all a try tomorrow and see if I can't figure out the issue.


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