2023-03-24 13:39 UTC

Featured AIS Feeder: Carlos Mourato (SRANSX503088) - Portugal

Carlos Mourato, ShipXplorer AIS Feeder

Carlos Mourato, 64 years old, is a retired and former Deutsche Welle employee who worked as an RF technician with high-power transmission systems and broadcast antennas. Since 1976, he has been a HAM radio operator with the callsign CT4RK and has been using and feeding ShipXplorer since March.

"I am the president of the ARLA Radio Club (Associação de Radioamadores do Litoral Alentejano), and we have installed a ShipXplorer antenna at our repeater site in Santiago do Cacem. The antenna is installed on a small 9m tower, as our 40m tower already has all the amateur service repeater antennas. We decided not to install the ShipXplorer antenna on the 40m tower because we needed more than 50m of low-loss coaxial cable, which would have been impractical. The antenna is mounted about 9m above ground level. I decided not to install the antenna there because we needed more than 50m of low-loss coaxial cable. So the antenna is installed about 9m above ground and 300m OSL.", says Mourato.

Photo courtesy of Carlos Mourato

Do you have any advice regarding the installation or mounting of the unit? "I've seen on forums that many users think using a preamp will increase their station's range. While this can be true, it will depend on various factors, such as antenna gain and cable losses. The preamplifier should be mounted close to the antenna after any bandpass filters in the system. This is because the preamp can amplify out-of-band noise before the filter. If mounting the preamp closer to the receiver is necessary, additional filtering may be required to reduce noise. The antenna should be mounted far away from other sources of electromagnetic interference, including other antennas, power lines, and electronic equipment. This will prevent the electromagnetic field induced in the antenna from overloading the receiver and disrupting AIS signal reception."