[Towertalk] New Radomes for repeater antennas...

[ag0n@arrl.net]

On Tue, 12 Nov 2002 21:38:50 -0800, Dino Darling wrote:

> We have a couple of very old "Station Master" antennas at a repeater 
> site.  I've been pushing for a while to get up the tower and fix/replace 
> these great old antennas.  If my thinking is right, the radomes should be 
> able to be repaired or replaced.

I don't now just HOW old you are talking about, but I've been into many of
the old ones to modify commercial versions to amateur band, or to obtain the
housing for homebrew versions.  This was in the 60s and early to mid 70s.
They are/were very difficult to get into because they were filled full of
molten bees-wax after the antenna was inserted into the tube.  It takes days
of patience to melt one out, or better yet, several people working on it at
the same time.  I've never seen anyone just replace the housing and don't
know where you would get a new one.

They were a great antenna, as long as you didn't develop the very
characteristic "click of death".  ;o)  This usually meant one of the copper
straps that connect the center conductor of one section to the shield of the
next has become broken or unsoldered.

Historically, on the left coast the homebrew version of this antenna was
called a Franklin.  I made a lot of them and used them on towers for years,
supported by nothing but rope, some mounted in PVC.  The higher gain version
of it is some 50' long for 2m and has 21 elements in it (if my memory serves
me correctly).  Of course, the beamwidth is pretty narrow.  This is the
electrical equivalent of the 20 something foot UHF antenna.

gm

a g 0 n at a r r l dot n e t
http colon slash slash mcduffie dot ws
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