New stainless steel antenna base and whips add to GME’s antenna range

by Matthew Heap on 12 Nov 2011 GME, Australia’s premier communications company, has again increased their already large marine antenna range with the introduction of the ABL016 Stainless steel Antenna base, and whips with stainless steel ferrules to suit.

In 2010, GME introduced the very popular detachable antenna range with the release of the versatile ABL012 and ABL013 antenna bases, a double swivel base (ABL012) and single swivel base (ABL013) both with 5 meters of antenna cable attached.

In early 2011 GME released the ABL014 and ABL015 antenna bases. These antenna bases have a round footprint the ABL012 and ABL013 have a rectangular footprint. The round base is only 75mm in diameter and so ideal for boats that don’t have a lot of room to mount their antennas. These round bases come in two configurations double swivel (ABL014) and single swivel (ABL015), and are compatible with all detachable AW36XX antenna whips in the GME range.

The ABL016 is made from marine grade stainless steel, and has a double swivel configuration. The ABL016 also has the same foot print as GME’s previous rectangular base antennas so updating your antenna is easy, and comes with 2 rubber angled wedges for installations on sloping decks.

All antenna bases in the GME range come with unique colour coding tabs that identify which whip should be attached to which base, this takes any confusion out of replacing whips when there are multiple antenna installations on boats, and this is no different with the new ABL016 and AW36XXS range, a specially moulded coloured identification tab comes with the base which can easily be fitted. Each of the new whips have a coloured tab inserted into the stainless steel ferrule so matching whip to base is simple.

These new antenna bases are compatible with any of the 27MHz, VHF or broadcast whips which are available in a 6ft (1.8m) or 8ft (2.4m) lengths.

The increase in range to both the detachable whips and antenna bases will give more flexibility to the owners of boats.
The fact that all whips and antenna bases are interchangeable takes the guess work out of which base is compatible with which antenna whip making it easier for both sales staff and the discerning boater. Also replacement of broken or damaged whips is simply a case of unscrewing the old whip and screwing in a new one.

All of the GME marine antenna whips are manufactured in Gladesville, Sydney.

For more information on GME’s marine antenna range or any of their other products please visit www.gme.net.au or Tel: (02) 9844 6666.