SteveShannon

His was a Hustler antenna that was struck by a bird. Here’s the thread:

Alright, I’ll quit looking. If I come across it somewhere in single quantities I’ll let you know, if you want.

I’m not sure if you’ve seen this and perhaps the STUF just isn’t available anywhere, but this map might help you find a distributor near you. http://crossdevices.com/cross_devices_website2018_022.htm

Ahh, bummer. Sorry about that.

ARS still lists it for $8/tube. https://amateurradiosupplies.com/products/stufsealant-stuf-dielectric-water-proofing-sealer

Good point!

I don’t recall anyone suggesting they shouldn’t be wrapped, but Amphenol sells them as weatherproof and even has N connectors listed as suitable for extreme exposure. https://www.amphenolrf.com/rf-connectors.html?applications=638350

You’re right. Here’s the drawing from the data sheet (Amphenol website, not YouTube) and a list of the mil-spec for moisture resistance.:

You’re wrong. From Amphenol, note the word “weatherproof”::

I wouldn’t start throwing things away. I’m not even sure that what you did is related to the problem. You might end up replacing the cable or part of it but you can sell the antenna or change the connector at the feed point.

My suggestion is to set the transmitting handheld to transmit on 467.600 MHz. Don’t worry about setting a CTCSS tone. That will come later. Set your second radio to receive on 467.600 MHz and be absolutely sure no RX tone is set or required. Give the receiving radio to someone and have them go 50 or 100 feet away and listen. If they don’t hear you transmit one of the radios isn’t working.

A full duplex repeater cannot transmit and receive on exactly the same frequency simultaneously. On a single antenna system the two frequencies must be different so the duplexer can prevent the full power of the transmitter from overwhelming and damaging the receiver. That’s also reflected in the regulations. We transmit to a repeater on the 467 MHz main channels and we receive from the repeater on the corresponding 462 MHz main channels. The only time you transmit and receive on the same frequency is when you communicate on simplex. That’s all preprogrammed on certified GMRS radios so you wouldn’t have to program it in.

What kind of coax are you using? Specifically, what’s the dielectric made of? Here’s an interesting article about dielectric changes over temperatures.. https://www.microwavejournal.com/articles/27954-minimizing-temperature-induced-phase-errors-in-coaxial-cables

Repeater frequencies are 5 MHz higher on transmit than receiver. They have to be.

Maybe it’s related. Maybe it’s your antenna that’s changing. “Kids”. Ha! my wife reminds me that I'm an old man

On an antenna I could see the dip shifting left or right as the length changes with temperature. It would be interesting to chart the dip frequency versus temperature.

Certainly water in coax will absolutely mess up impedance, which appears in the SWR. I wouldn’t argue otherwise, but the water damage is usually permanent and requires that cable be shortened to remove the waterlogged area.. I just don’t know if freezing that water then somehow restores the impedance of the cable. If so, maybe freeze drying a cable would be a possibility to permanently remove the moisture. (Pure irresponsible speculation on my part!) I agree SWR shouldn’t change like that and I think you’re smart to watch this and chart the SWR and temperature over time. I would be interested in knowing if the SWR dip associated with the antenna raises and lowers or moves side to side. You’d need to sweep it with an analyzer or VNA to see and I don’t know if you have one. I’m very interested in what you discover. I’ve had ice build up on a wire antenna before. The SWR went through the roof. After the ice melted the SWR came back down slightly but I had to shorten the wire to move the dips back where I needed them.

I honestly don’t know the effect on SWR of freezing water trapped in coax. It may be something else entirely that’s causing the rise in SWR. But an SWR of 2.1:1 isn’t really the end of the world. I’ve operated my ham radio at an SWR exceeding 4:1 before by turning down the power to 30 watts. I still was very successful at making contacts hundreds of miles away.

An N connector is sealed. Filling the recess completely with grease could create hydraulic pressure when screwing the connector halves together and that hydraulic pressure could prevent the connector from screwing together fully making the seal even worse. The video you posted of the “STUF” specifically mentions not to fill an N connector with it, but to use less to avoid this hydraulic pressure.

I don’t think it exists anymore. Here’s the announcement Rich placed on the main page:

There is a good reason not to use full legal power on a repeater, especially given the situation described above. The repeater already has the advantage of antenna height and gain. Having a high power transmitter in your repeater simply makes it so the repeater can transmit much further than the radios in the field can transmit with their lower elevation and lower gain antennas.

https://www.szanysecu.com/h-col-106.html?m487pageno=3

There was another guy who literally changed his GMRS license several times (at a cost of $35 each time) because he kept getting called out for things. He’d start all over again. I know I can be an insufferable jerk sometimes but I can’t imagine going to that extreme.

He’s gone. But I think he meant that if only the number is used, N is implied and that if it’s inverted, I must appear. They aren’t formal rules but convention. But he drug up. He had his account deleted or hidden so his old login name appears as Guest now. He was SoCalGMRS and before that wrkp381 (or something like that.)

That’s how I apply the Vaseline as well. On a sealed N connector I would not fill it because the sealed fitting might be prevented from fully closing, but for UHF connectors I fill them full and screw them together.