The amount of power put through an aerial (and coax) makes
transmitting incomparable with receiving.

The nature of receiving means that you can receive with a poorly-tuned
antenna or, often, with just a bit of wire.

VHF signals are normally bound by the horizon - if you were able to
hear VHF channels at 100's of miles distance then that's caused by
unusual atmospheric conditions (e.g. ducting) and I wouldn't draw any
conclusions from it.

The best thing to do is find a local ham or amateur radio club and ask
them to help you test your feed line with their SWR meter.




On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 10:59 PM, sailor63109@...
[amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

Our VHF has a history of not working for completely inexplicable reasons. It will receive but will not send, even at very close ranges. It will work for a time and then not work for a time. Thank goodness I bought a handheld for a backup.


It doesn't seem like it could be the antenna. We listened to the USCG Charleston SC when we were at the FL/GA border, almost two hundred miles away (they must have a very tall antenna)