Trying to identify an antenna

[ike86]

Hi!

When I bought my boat there was an antenna mounted on the pushpit that was no longer connected to anything and I've been struggling to identify what it is. It's a helix with with single transistor amp but no filtering like you'd see on a gps antenna. It has a short bit of coax attached but with no markings (could be RG58 or RG59?) however the underside of the pcb has a bird logo and 9409.


Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards

Ike

[Wotname]

Welcome aboard CF, ike86.

WAG - satellite phone external antenna???????

[stormalong]

My guess is that it is an old satnav antenna. The satnav system was decommissioned when GPS was put into service.

Helical antennas are definitely for some type of satellite reception.

[Brian.D]

Based on it's design, my guess would equal the above, but I would add that it looks like a quadrifilar helix antenna for satellite weather reception. Looks too big fo L-band, but that is just a guess.

JMHO


Backfire resonant quadrifilar helix antenna popular for GNSS, communications and weather satellite receiving stations. This antenna is configured for right-hand circular polarization. Note left-hand winding sense and the feedpoint at the top of the antenna.

[Redline452]

could be an old GPS antenna... my first Garmin GPS45 had a quadhelix antenna. Definitely NOT a satphone / transmit antenna, receive-only with that transistor amp.