[AReU] Re: Repeater antenna replacement

[Mike Sprenger]

Folks,

Thanks for your efforts over the last several months bring to fruition the 
replacement of the antenna and pigtail !

No doubt the greatest amount of cumulative time and effort was invested 
before sunrise today to pull this off successfully the first time.  (Not to 
mention all of the ongoing effort to keep the repeater up and running well..)

I'm grateful for these kinds of things and the backing of the Club to get 
'em done.

73
Mike (W4UOO)



At 06:47 PM 4/25/2005, you wrote:
>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
>
>
>
>
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>
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