radio antennas

[wakina]

Can someone steer me in the right direction, I can only make contact when I am within sight distance. Is it the type of antenna or a crappy radio? How far out should be able to contact another boat?
are the Db's important? Any help is very welcome. Thanks Geary

How old or how long has it been in service? How tall is it? Can you receive the weather stations? If you can receive the weather stations then you are most likely transmitting with no or at best a very weak signal which is usually an indication that you have a poor connection. Just as SPOONFEEDER states if the connections are not soldered they will corrode and you will lose your ground.

The height of you antenna above the water will determine how far you will be able to broadcast/transmit, you may be able to receive signals from afar but you will not be able to transmit that far due to the line of sight from your antenna to the horizon which is determined by the height of your antenna. The VHF radio signal is basically a straight, line of sight signal and cannot transmit beyond the horizon due to the curvature of the earth falling away from the straight line your signal is transmitting.