[AReU] Repeater antenna replacement

[Tony Stone]

Today I finally coordinated the replacement of the repeater antenna. As 
everyone knows,
there was much-much noise generated when the wind was blowing. The wind at 
275 ft. is
much worse that the wind at ground level as you can imagine.

The spare antenna was replaced as well as the "pigtail" from the antenna to 
the end of the
main feedline. The return loss was checked before and after the change out 
and the
numbers were much better with the new antenna and feedline. The new antenna 
was
checked on the ground of course and was found to be in fine shape. I swept 
the new
"pigtail" and it was good to 3.0 GHz and exhibited fine stability when 
flexed.

The problem was with the old "pigtail". We could find nothing wrong with the 
antenna
although we destroyed it getting it apart because the parts were "grown" 
together. The
"pigtail" connectors were fine but it had become loose from the tower and 
was moving
around in the wind. I don't know if the attachments failed or they were not 
installed
adequately originally (a mute point at this time). There were 5 places where 
the "pigtail"
had rubbed the tower sections and completly compromized the outer jacket. 
The
shielding had corroded and obiviously water has intruded into the outer 
shield ring.
The unit had been in service for about 7 years.

I have the old "pigtail" for show and tell at the next BARS meeting and I 
will also bring
it to the next AREU meeting.

Many-many thanks to Dick (W7RRS), Ed (W7LGD) and David (AI4CR, aka the
money man") for supplying moral and physical support for this project.

Also the TECO group was very cooperative at getting all of the BARS members
and personnel of the tower climbing group back to the tower site.

The antenna was re-oriented to the East side of the Southeast tower leg to, 
hopefully,
improve coverage to the folks in the Eastern quadrant of the coverage area.

I would appreciate signal reports from everyone, especially folks East of 
the tower
(Plant City, Valrico, Durant, Dover, etc.). I don't believe there will be a 
dramatic
increase in general signal strength as the antenna parts were, more or less, 
intact
but the performance may be greater in this area.

73

Tony