OK, I have this problem...

[LeoG]

Well I'm getting setup for the big swap out.   Getting the Comet CA712EFC ready for deployment.

Wrapped the area where the antenna joins with self fusing tape.

And then marine grade heat shrink with the adhesive lining on the inside.

Then wrapped the N connector after wrenching it tight with the self fusing tape.

And then the heat shrink tubing again.  Put silicon where the aluminum tube joins the ground plane area before I put the mounting tube on.

Pretty stiff stuff.  I guess that's why they call it hard line.

And the completed assembly.

 

Should be going up sometime this week. 

 

[SteveShannon]

2 hours ago, LeoG said:

Well I'm getting setup for the big swap out.   Getting the Comet CA712EFC ready for deployment.

Wrapped the area where the antenna joins with self fusing tape.

And then marine grade heat shrink with the adhesive lining on the inside.

Then wrapped the N connector after wrenching it tight with the self fusing tape.

And then the heat shrink tubing again.  Put silicon where the aluminum tube joins the ground plane area before I put the mounting tube on.

Pretty stiff stuff.  I guess that's why they call it hard line.

And the completed assembly.

 

Should be going up sometime this week. 

 

Very thorough!  Nice job. 

[LeoG]

I tell you.. it better not leak.

[SteveShannon]

8 minutes ago, LeoG said:

I tell you.. it better not leak.

I don’t see how it could.  

[tcp2525]

2 hours ago, LeoG said:

Well I'm getting setup for the big swap out.   Getting the Comet CA712EFC ready for deployment.

Wrapped the area where the antenna joins with self fusing tape.

And then marine grade heat shrink with the adhesive lining on the inside.

Then wrapped the N connector after wrenching it tight with the self fusing tape.

And then the heat shrink tubing again.  Put silicon where the aluminum tube joins the ground plane area before I put the mounting tube on.

Pretty stiff stuff.  I guess that's why they call it hard line.

And the completed assembly.

 

Should be going up sometime this week. 

 

Now, ain't that purdy! Nice shiny new Heliax glimmering in the sunlight. That ought to give you an extra 2.5db gain. I can't wait till it's up and running. Good waterproofing job.

[GrouserPad]

Yeh buddy!!

[LeoG]

26 minutes ago, tcp2525 said:

Now, ain't that purdy! Nice shiny new Heliax glimmering in the sunlight. That ought to give you an extra 2.5db gain. I can't wait till it's up and running. Good waterproofing job.

It's only 25' so not much gain over the M&P Hyperflex 13.  So .5db vs .37dB.  The whole run is just over 80'.  If I did that it would be more.  1.60dB vs 1.18dB but still, nothing Earth shattering.

 

I waterproofed my original setup with two wraps of the self fusing and a outer wrap of electrical tape for the UV protection.  No idea how water got in.  Other than a crack in the fiberglass or something.

[WSHH887]

2 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

I don’t see how it could.  

And the Titanic was unsinkable.  

 

[WRUE951]

1 hour ago, LeoG said:

It's only 25' so not much gain over the M&P Hyperflex 13.  So .5db vs .37dB.  The whole run is just over 80'.  If I did that it would be more.  1.60dB vs 1.18dB but still, nothing Earth shattering.

 

I waterproofed my original setup with two wraps of the self fusing and a outer wrap of electrical tape for the UV protection.  No idea how water got in.  Other than a crack in the fiberglass or something.

I would believe the cracks in fiberglass radome theory, i've actually seen some poor quality radomes in my time.   When a bird can crash into one and kill it, you know the quality of these are in the dump somewhere.  

[LeoG]

Well that would be nice because I'd have a 25' pc of coax that's still good.

[WRUU653]

You can give your taped connections a coating of this stuff (Scotchkote), but it's kind off permanent so test everything first because your not going to want to try removing it.  Also I highly recommend wearing gloves while applying, it will stick to skin... and everything else. 

[tcp2525]

2 hours ago, WRUU653 said:

You can give your taped connections a coating of this stuff (Scotchkote), but it's kind off permanent so test everything first because your not going to want to try removing it.  Also I highly recommend wearing gloves while applying, it will stick to skin... and everything else. 

Man, you guys are going extreme. Next you'll attempt to put a condom on a pachyderm. Just wrap it with good quality 3M electrical tape and be done with. I have wrapped with that stuff and it's still working after 30 years. You can get rolls of 2" wide from your local utility worker for free, just ask.

[LeoG]

OK, today was the big day.  I got my buddy to bring over the bucket truck.  I had already made up the antenna with the cable as you all know. 

1st thing to do was get the existing antenna down.  So up to the lightning arrestor and cut off the water protection.  Used a set of channel locks to undo the N connector.  Didn't see anything that would be a water issue in there.  So up the mast I went in the bucket clipping off the tie wraps as I gained altitude.  Got to the antenna and loosened the nuts on the U bolt and removed the antenna.  Back down to the ground.

2nd thing was to put up the guy wire system.  I used a triple clamp designed for 1 1/2" mast and attached 1/8" stainless steel cable using loop thimbles and aluminum double barrel sleeves.  Crimped them up using 2 sleeves.  One tight against the thimble and one about 1 1/2" away where the sleeve hid the end of the cable to make it prick proof.  Had 50' of cable on each of the 3 legs which I knew was more than enough.  I also knew it wouldn't be too short.  Up in the bucket again and mounted it about 2' from the top of the mast and opened up the looped cable and let it hang down.  Back to the ground again.

3rd thing was bring up the antenna.  All the way to the top this time and mounted the antenna using the U bolts that came with it.  And slowly went down to unfurl the cable.  Forgot to bring the tie wraps up, crap.  Back down to fetch them and back up and tied the coax off about every 10" with two tie wraps at each spacing.  Then to the bottom to attach into the lightning arrestor.  Put the heat shrink tubing on, ya.. didn't forget LOL.  And used the self fusing tape to seal the joint.  Slipped the tubing over it and hit it with the heat gun at 700ºF.  Back down again.

4th..  Went into the house to pull the trigger.  Hit my repeater and it came back with a good signal.  Hit the Holyoke repeater which I could barely do lately and I got a response from a friend that I was Lima Charley (loud and clear) which I haven't been in 6 months.  SWR on my repeater frequency was 1.01.  Switched to Channel 22 and the SWR was 1.00, fantastic.

5th I got the 5/16" stainless steel turnbuckles and crimping equipment and tied off one side to take the slight lean out of the antenna that I've had ever since a wind gust bent my chimney mount a bit.  I put 2 more straps on and lengthened the mast 8' and tied it into the chimney with a wood working clamp which stabilized it quite a bit.  The guy wire straightened out the slight lean.  Had to install a screw eye that I needed the bucket to do (or a ladder, but why I had the bucket truck here)  I pulled out one of the long nails holding up my gutter and put a 3/8"x8" eye hook with a PVC ferrule and it hit good.  Very secure, I was worried it's be a rotted pc under the aluminum siding.  But I hit a roof rafter end.  Tied that off with the guy wire and crimped everything up.

Time was up for the bucket truck and he went on his merry way.  I gave him a pair of the TD-H3s for the help and a bit more.

6th .. One more guy wire to tie off and I just moved my truck into position and stood on my tool box and secured the guy wire and turnbuckle.  Pretty much completed the job.  Took about 3 hours, 2 1/2 with the bucket truck.  Still have to clean up all the little tie wrap clippings.  That'll be a job for tomorrow.  Have to paint the blocks I put in to secure the eye hooks sometime soon.

 

[tcp2525]

12 hours ago, LeoG said:

OK, today was the big day.  I got my buddy to bring over the bucket truck.  I had already made up the antenna with the cable as you all know. 

1st thing to do was get the existing antenna down.  So up to the lightning arrestor and cut off the water protection.  Used a set of channel locks to undo the N connector.  Didn't see anything that would be a water issue in there.  So up the mast I went in the bucket clipping off the tie wraps as I gained altitude.  Got to the antenna and loosened the nuts on the U bolt and removed the antenna.  Back down to the ground.

2nd thing was to put up the guy wire system.  I used a triple clamp designed for 1 1/2" mast and attached 1/8" stainless steel cable using loop thimbles and aluminum double barrel sleeves.  Crimped them up using 2 sleeves.  One tight against the thimble and one about 1 1/2" away where the sleeve hid the end of the cable to make it prick proof.  Had 50' of cable on each of the 3 legs which I knew was more than enough.  I also knew it wouldn't be too short.  Up in the bucket again and mounted it about 2' from the top of the mast and opened up the looped cable and let it hang down.  Back to the ground again.

3rd thing was bring up the antenna.  All the way to the top this time and mounted the antenna using the U bolts that came with it.  And slowly went down to unfurl the cable.  Forgot to bring the tie wraps up, crap.  Back down to fetch them and back up and tied the coax off about every 10" with two tie wraps at each spacing.  Then to the bottom to attach into the lightning arrestor.  Put the heat shrink tubing on, ya.. didn't forget LOL.  And used the self fusing tape to seal the joint.  Slipped the tubing over it and hit it with the heat gun at 700ºF.  Back down again.

4th..  Went into the house to pull the trigger.  Hit my repeater and it came back with a good signal.  Hit the Holyoke repeater which I could barely do lately and I got a response from a friend that I was Lima Charley (loud and clear) which I haven't been in 6 months.  SWR on my repeater frequency was 1.01.  Switched to Channel 22 and the SWR was 1.00, fantastic.

5th I got the 5/16" stainless steel turnbuckles and crimping equipment and tied off one side to take the slight lean out of the antenna that I've had ever since a wind gust bent my chimney mount a bit.  I put 2 more straps on and lengthened the mast 8' and tied it into the chimney with a wood working clamp which stabilized it quite a bit.  The guy wire straightened out the slight lean.  Had to install a screw eye that I needed the bucket to do (or a ladder, but why I had the bucket truck here)  I pulled out one of the long nails holding up my gutter and put a 3/8"x8" eye hook with a PVC ferrule and it hit good.  Very secure, I was worried it's be a rotted pc under the aluminum siding.  But I hit a roof rafter end.  Tied that off with the guy wire and crimped everything up.

Time was up for the bucket truck and he went on his merry way.  I gave him a pair of the TD-H3s for the help and a bit more.

6th .. One more guy wire to tie off and I just moved my truck into position and stood on my tool box and secured the guy wire and turnbuckle.  Pretty much completed the job.  Took about 3 hours, 2 1/2 with the bucket truck.  Still have to clean up all the little tie wrap clippings.  That'll be a job for tomorrow.  Have to paint the blocks I put in to secure the eye hooks sometime soon.

 

Nice! You should really feel great that you it it behind you and it's working. 

[LeoG]

The most surprising thing was I thought it would take me 2 hours with the bucket truck and I did it in 2 1/2.  Usually you are off by a factor of at least double when you do things you aren't use to doing.  And the original guestimate of time didn't really include the guy wires other than putting the harness on the mast.  We attached 2 to the house which probably took about 20 minutes and then cleanup.

I was very happy with how it progressed and the results.

With my other antenna, even before the water infiltration issue going from my house to my shop repeater was usually R3-R5.  Every once in a while it was R7.  I had an wind issue that bent my mounting hardware at the shop repeater and that's when I had the best connection.  I ended up turning the repeater antenna 10º and that helped a lot for some reason.  Cheap antenna I'm guessing.

Now with the new setup from my house it's coming in R9, not quite full quieting.  But miles different than before.  So between going from 7.2dBi to 9.8dBi gain and the new antenna being 5' taller (raising the center of radiation 2 1/2 ft) it made a world of difference.

Now I have to investigate what's bad on the other setup.  The antenna or the coax.  Hoping the antenna so I can keep the length of coax for future repurposing.

[tcp2525]

22 minutes ago, LeoG said:

The most surprising thing was I thought it would take me 2 hours with the bucket truck and I did it in 2 1/2.  Usually you are off by a factor of at least double when you do things you aren't use to doing.  And the original guestimate of time didn't really include the guy wires other than putting the harness on the mast.  We attached 2 to the house which probably took about 20 minutes and then cleanup.

I was very happy with how it progressed and the results.

With my other antenna, even before the water infiltration issue going from my house to my shop repeater was usually R3-R5.  Every once in a while it was R7.  I had an wind issue that bent my mounting hardware at the shop repeater and that's when I had the best connection.  I ended up turning the repeater antenna 10º and that helped a lot for some reason.  Cheap antenna I'm guessing.

Now with the new setup from my house it's coming in R9, not quite full quieting.  But miles different than before.  So between going from 7.2dBi to 9.8dBi gain and the new antenna being 5' taller (raising the center of radiation 2 1/2 ft) it made a world of difference.

Now I have to investigate what's bad on the other setup.  The antenna or the coax.  Hoping the antenna so I can keep the length of coax for future repurposing.

Amazing what a little piece of Heliax makes. Buy it once, install it once, and never look back.

[LeoG]

I have no idea the impact of the Heliax.  It was only 25', less than 1/3rd the run.  But the price difference wasn't that great so I said just do it.  Was more worried about the problem of different metals in the coax blah blah blah.  Plus this is an N connector antenna and the other was a 239 which isn't waterproof.

The main reason is I already had to do it twice, and I do not plan on doing it a 3rd time.