Most skippers regard the aerial for the radio as nothing more than an annoying piece of equipment on the mast. Technically, however, the quality of the antenna is almost more important than that of the radio itself. That's why we analysed the performance of 14 commercially available antennas for sailing yachts in a professional test laboratory. The results are quite heterogeneous: The very compact models in particular proved to be unsuitable, and they cannot even be used as emergency antennas. But there are also bright spots. In the full-size models, customers can get five-star candidates for the same money and no heavier. Antennas with an integrated wind direction indicator are sometimes problematic: twice poor, once top.
The test was published in YACHT 22/2020, which can be ordered directly here. Or you can download the test directly via the link below.
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Fridtjof Gunkel
Deputy Chief Editor YACHT
