LeoG

That's what the Chevron Deference was about. Agencies pumping out regulation and then they get to be rule maker, regulator, judge, jury, and prosecutor along with them keeping the fines they impose on people/companies.

There is no rule of law. It's regulation. They treat it like law, but it's not.

Not enough selectivity with the tones. I have my repeater on 100 and 7 miles away there is a repeater on 103.4. On occasion I can trigger it with my base. I kept getting this full quieting signal on occasion so I played with the tones only to find out all I had to do is go up one and there it was.

They have people there who job it is is to make rules. When all the rules are made do you think they will resign? No, this is the govt. They'll just make up more rules to justify their position.

Well I knew a bird struck an antenna. Thought it was a Laird, at least Laird was in the title.

Yep, I was pretty bummed myself. Looked like the perfect product to do exactly what I wanted. eBay has 20 tubes for sale, but I only need one.

It is a 2pc antenna but not in the sense that there is an opening for water to get into. The brass screw coupler seems sealed on the top and lower sections of the antenna and have a rubber O ring between them. Anything is possible with water. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CF9DV3ZM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Not really worried about the price from an $80 to $140 antenna. You only buy it once (as I'm buying my second). But there are limits. No need for a $1400 or $2300 antenna. Thought I heard on the forum someone had a bird hit their Laird antenna and it splintered into pcs. Right now I'm running some chynese generic antenna with a 7.2dBi gain (5dBd) and most of them look the same. The Browning doesn't have a ground plane, nor does it have a sleeve that covers the antenna connector. Both which give me apprehension.

And correction on my coax type. I do have LMR400 at the shop, @50'. But at the house I have M&P Hyperflex 13, @84'. A 60' section to the lightning arrester and 24' from there to the antenna. Lightning arrester is type N connectors.

Hit 32º at 5:19 this morning and it's 8:30 and 36º currently in my backyard. So plenty of time for any ice in my coax/connectors/antenna to liquify. My SWR is at 2.08. I don't have full quieting with my repeater currently and the Holyoke repeater is at 1/2 scale instead of full quieting like it was yesterday during the cold. As always the other 2 repeaters are full quieting. I'm starting to see a trend.

I ordered it from there and the canceled my order and refunded my money. Said they didn't have it in stock and nor could they get it.

Sounds like something from the clothing industry.

Anyone use this antenna? 5dBd gain. Thinking about replacing my antenna because of water issues in my coax. Want something with an N fitting, current antenna has a SO239.

Well looking at a set of mating N connectors it looks like the mating surfaces are the flat area of the female and the rubber base of the male. If you put a small coating of dielectric grease on the female flat mating surface it looks like the internal portion of the connector has an excellent seal from anything penetrating it. The only ingress would be from the rear of the connector using capillary action into the fittings. Water getting in through the threads should have no chance of getting inside the fitting if it has been tightened properly.

Sounds like it's back to Vaseline. That STUF product doesn't seem to exist anymore. Found it on ebay but it's 20 tubes not for individual sale.

That had proper weatherproofing on it. As best I could do. It was mostly done on the ground and then the antenna attached to the mast was inserted into the lower section of mast that was existing. Don't know how to do a better job without encapsulating the entire thing is rubber. But yes, if I have to go up there to strip it down new coax and antenna will be on the list. This was only up there since about June. Could also be infiltration at the lightning arrestor. But that is an N fitting on both sides. Still wrapped to death.

RG8-X LOL No no no. LMR400 by Times MIcrowave. Had to see the wife off to NY so I was able to do another check. 2pm 34ºF SWR was 1.25. I still think the water is frozen in the cable though. They say to get rid of the water in the cable to use a vacuum with a heated source. A modern wood Kiln would be perfect. I was thinking of pulling a vacuum on the outdoor end while heating up the first 3-4 feet of coax to try to rid it of water. But I'll probably just by 24' of hardline to replace the coax at the house and make it easy on myself. It doesn't need it. But it's better suited for outdoors.

Oh ya, I know. I'll wait until I have access to the bucket truck. The antenna isn't actually easily accessible. This is an earlier picture. The mast holding hardware has been greatly increased.

And how does this help me ? Kidding, kidding. You kids go out and have fun...

I'm getting a much better SWR with cold temps right now. Still looking at it as I only have one day of information I'm looking at.

Ya, no VNA here. So I'm stuck with the SWR/Power meter to do my investigating. The other problem is the Holyoke repeater is also having issues currently. So it's hard to tell if it's me, or them, or both at times. I have two other repeaters, one nearby (7 miles) and the other farther (17 miles) while the Holyoke is 21 miles. The other two are always good for contact. I can hit the Holyoke repeater with my HT and during those periods of me not being able to hit the repeater with my base unit, I can also not hit it with the HT. So I've always assumed it's atmospheric. For the entire summer it was full quieting. Winter came along and now it's a crapshoot. The whole thing is just frustrating.

You can use twigs and stones if you guy wire it properly . Myself I've been using 1.5" EMT conduit for masts. You can use 1.25" copper pipe to join sections together, they fit snug. I use a 2' section of copper and then 3 self tapping screws on the upper and lower sections to secure them together.

Well I've been having an issue contacting this one repeater I frequent. I don't have enough evidence gathered yet to say the SWR and the bad reception are a 1 to 1 correlation. But I plan on leaving the meter inline for a week or so to see if there is a temperature correlation. Also have issues contacting the repeater at my shop. Again, just starting up with the investigation into this now that I know my SWR is moving around way more than I think it should. I understand if it's raining or inclement weather the SWR can move. But it's been pretty clear. We had a 1 minute rain event the other day, but the problem has been around way longer than that short rain burst.

OK, brought the SWR meter home last night and it was a bit less than 2.1. Not good at all. It was cold enough that I would figure any water in the line was frozen if it was there. It shouldn't be, the whole system was wrapped with the stretchy tape and then covered with electrical tape. 32º happened at 8pm and I went to bed about midnight and it was still 2.09 This morning it was back to 1.19 and it was pretty cold, 21ºF and colder overnight. This is my house, not the repeater. I haven't done any testing on the repeater.