Our repeater committee decided to replace the 2 meter repeater antenna to fix the noise problems that have occured when there is a lot of precipitation. Ken, KE2N, had run a separate transmit antenna and the results appear to validate the theory that the antenna was the problem.
When the new antenna arrived, it was decided to do an immediate installation because of national weather service warnings of a storm the next day. With only a few hours notice, Ken had a team of 4 club members : Byron, AK4XR, Gil, KM4OZH, John, KG4NXT, and Ken himself. The team arrived and installed the antenna without notable problems. Byron ,who learned safe tower climbing in Iraq, climbed the tower and installed the antenna with the rest of the team as support.
Ken inspected the old antenna and reported “The old antenna has a screw-together field joint between the upper and lower sections with a connector inside it. The center pin of the connector appears blackened and burned. Both upper and lower fiberglass sections each have a small vertical crack just above the base of each section. More post-mortem later.”
All who checked in the Thursday night net had good things to say about the new antenna.
