Unexpected benefit of Kevlar over carbon fiber

[gumpus]

My wife's car came with a free subscription to satellite radio and she recently found a good deal so we renewed the subscription. Then as I'm driving to the put-in the reception is breaking up until I realize that duh, there is a canoe over the antennae. A couple of days later I'm on the way to the put-in and getting perfect reception and it hits me that the boat is Kevlar. So over the next week or so I switched back and forth between my Kevlar Osprey and my carbon fiber Yellowstone Solo and sure enough I get a clear signal with the Osprey and a crummy reception (or none) with the Yellowstone. So I did a quick Google search and learned that carbon fiber conducts electricity and may interfere with radio signals. So now I'm confused since I like light weight but I also like music.

https://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/archive/index.php/t-32009.html

 

[Guest]

My wife's car came with a free subscription to satellite radio and she recently found a good deal so we renewed the subscription. Then as I'm driving to the put-in the reception is breaking up until I realize that duh, there is a canoe over the antennae.
I did a quick Google search and learned that carbon fiber conducts electricity and may interfere with radio signals. So now I'm confused since I like light weight but I also like music.

Just satellite radio, or all radio reception?

I’m not dropping 3K on a new UL carbon canoe if I can’t seek and scan to find a classic rock station or NPR, or some other weird and unexpected joy on the low end of the dial.

“Dial”, hahahaha, what a dinosaur. Though nowadays I’m on the FM band. AM did once rule the airwaves when travelling cross country.

Mid 70’s, 68 VW camper, heading across western Kansas. We picked up a crystal clear 50,000 watt station out of Amarillo that played requests. The DJ’s memorable name was “Rusty Bell”.

We hit the first gas station pay phone and made a person-to-person-collect call, requesting to speak with “John Prine Paradise”. Yes, operator, that’s his full name, he’s Navaho.

Near instant fulfillment; the DJ came on the air laughing and said something like “I’ve just had a really clever request, and here’s John Prine’s Paradise”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEy6EuZp9IY

We stopped at every gas station in western Kansas. “Person to Person collect for Joni Paveparadiesh”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWwUJH70ubM

“Poncho or Lefty Louharris, either one will accept the call operator, they’re brothers”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3LQeRqTBK4

Rusty Bell picked up every clue as we got more obscure, and went on air while taking our calls, saying “She’s not here right now operator, but I do expect her shortly”.
Operator: “Would you like to call back sir?”
Oh heck yes we would. Repeatedly.

“Rusty Bell” was having a grand time as our scheme partner, and we sang bad bus harmonies across half of Kansas. Can’t do that with yer newfangled satellite radio sonny.

Back on topic, I custom bent the antenna on our old van when I first bought it, otherwise it pressed against a gunwale when carrying multiple boats and rattled horribly. 18 years later it still has that custom bend.

Those rear mounted “Shark Fin” antennas? Don’t even get me started on re-engineering a perfectly good wheel simply for aesthetics.

 

[gumpus]

It only affects the satellite radio reception and not the FM or AM. My Kevlar Osprey has carbon/Kevlar gunnels but they apparently have no impact as the signal must pass straight through the hull. I suppose that somehow one should be able to use a carbon fiber boat as a super antennae. I think frozentripper has the physics background so maybe he'll chime in.

 

[yknpdlr]

I have grown to severely dislike satellite radio so much that I dropped my subscription after the second year. Great when it was free for the first few months with my new Subaru Forester. Then around $100 for the following first year. Problem was there are so many areas of drop outs even with a full 360 view of clear sky it frustrated me a lot. I can understand with dense woods close to the road or when terrain masks part of the sky, but not when I have constant perfectly open views of the entire sky.

I did definitely notice when I have a carbon/kevlar canoe on top that the signal took a dive, depending on direction of travel. I reluctantly paid the $238 subscription in the following year because I then drove from NY to Whitehorse and back, then to Texas and back. Since I had a carbon canoe on the roof to the Yukon, I took the signal hit and mostly listened to audio books on my ipad. But to Texas and back I had no canoe, only clear sky with many irritating signal loss drop outs. That's it, I did not renew again. Since then they have offered me a reduced rate for a few months at a time, hoping I would get hooked again for the big fee to follow..

 

[alsg]

The best reception will likely be the W/T or Wood/Tin foil canoe.

 

[yknpdlr]

It only affects the satellite radio reception and not the FM or AM. My Kevlar Osprey has carbon/Kevlar gunnels but they apparently have no impact as the signal must pass straight through the hull. I suppose that somehow one should be able to use a carbon fiber boat as a super antennae. I think frozentripper has the physics background so maybe he'll chime in.

What you are creating is in effect a Faraday cage, which denies all electric fields (including radio signals) to exist within the interior. Coupling an external antenna to the small shark fin car antenna would be a messy task.

 

[gumpus]

When we lived in Ann Arbor we had satellite radio in the house for a while and it cost $13/month. Then when we decided to cancel they offered it for $5/month and when my wife refused that we were offered 6 months for free. I think the cost to the provider is close to zero so there may be bargains available to finicky or lucky consumers.

 

[Paddlinhal]

Conducts electricity? I wonder if you can rub the canoe on your shirt and stick it the wall like a balloon. Sure would be a great storage option.