Thanks to all who sent me comments and suggestions. The general
consensus for N-type connectors (and that is, indeed, what we found
at the base of the antenna, this afternoon) is to seal them, in spite of
their 'weatherproof' rating.
Since it has been discussed a couple of times before and I was dumb
enough to not have saved the thread away properly, I will not reprise the
responses on the reflector....if you want to know what the specific
comments were, I will be happy to respond directly with a summary.
By the way, the antenna is a G7-144, mounted on a 5 ft mast atop the
penthouse (equipment/mechanical room) roof of a 9 story building at
Johnson Space Center. It's been up there for at least 10 years.
On our arrival there, I saw immediately that the connector N-type
and was unsealed. Fearing the worst, I removed the feed from the
antenna and, to my delight, found the female section nice and clean
and shiny; same with the male connector. I put the end on a dummy
load and we ran swr checks from the repeater -- flat! Nothing
reflected. I put my MFJ-259 on the antenna and found infinity SWR.
We are replacing the antenna as soon as the new one (another
G7-144) gets here. We will also seal the connector at the antenna
base.
73,
Dale Martin, KG5U
kg5u@hal-pc.org
http://www.hal-pc.org/~kg5u
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