As for what goes wrong with a DB224, my experience has not shown any problem with the harness.
All of the problems I have found have been related to cracks in the elements. I just removed three DB224E with the 37 inch elements in November. All had been in place for about 10 years. The coax harness on all looks fine. However, each element was cracked to some degree on the outer side of the lower loop right where it meets the large diameter arm that mounts it to the mast. The other common place I have seen cracks on another DB224 that is over 15 years old is the center of the U portion of the loop. That is the point where the stress and thinning of the metal is the greatest due to the effect of forming the element. The crack usually occurs at the point where the drain hole is drilled. Or sometimes I have seen a crack that looks like the lower element filled with water and froze. The vast majority of cracks appear to fatigue based from element vibration stress rather than freezing water. I have also seen the plastic insulators at the feed point get brittle and fragile with age. So far the harnesses have looked good except for the tape that secures them to the mast. John Lock KF0M Wichita KS kf0m at arrl dot net > -----Original Message----- > From: russ [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 4:50 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] DB-224 Spacing Came Out Ok > > > > Hey Mathew, > This is great news! > The DB-224 is a very good antenna and should > give you years of great service with the new harness. I think > that is about > the only thing that > ever goes wrong with them. Reminder to use some lock-tight before you > install it permanently. > Please let us all know how your test go! > Very best of 73, > Russ, W3CH > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "w9mwq" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 5:00 PM > Subject: [Repeater-Builder] DB-224 Spacing Came Out Ok > > > > > > > > Well I applied the new harness to the DB-224 today and it came out > > just fine. Actually the element's did not end up into the mounting > > section of the antenna like I had thought it would. As it turns > > out, I had to move the bottom elemnet up an inch or so. It looks as > > if the previous owner had moved the elements, but never changed the > > harness. SO hopefully the weather will be decent Saturday and I can > > take it outside and test it. Thanks for all the input. > > > > Mathew > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
