I appriciate everyones suggestions of either a station master or a DB-*** antenna.
I inherited this repeater system. And I'm still learning as I go. There is alot of work to do both inside and outside of the shack. The shack and 160' tower is located on private property owned by a ham, so access and tower work is not an issue. The tower came off an air foce base in 1971 +/-...it is rugged. You climb up a ladder inside the three sided tower. Nice having the ladder, but stinks when you have to carry stuff up...and I'm not a small guy either. I forgot to mention that this UHF repeater is not the main repeater in our system ...that would be our 2 meter system, wich has a station master at the top of the tower - fed by a converted Micor and 7/8" pressurized hardline. I have no idea what the UHF stick was that failed, but its a two section fiberglass radome, 9 1/2' long, probably 1 1/4" at the base, and colinear internals. Its final demise was one of the brass "tuning sections" cracked. I suppose it could be fixed. But I wouldn't put it back on the tower. Maybe in my back yard, but not on the big tower. We had a monsterous wind storm here on October 20...thats when trouble started. The antennas are top mounted on the 160' tower, that is about 660' MSL (total) and about 40 miles from the Atlantic Ocean in FN42. Icing is a concern, as is wind, and with no blocking landscape, on a clear day, on top of the tower, I can see Boston, MA, Lowell MA and Temple Mountain, NH. What we decided with is a Hustler HD9-43050 9dB gain. Looks like a rugged stick, and certainly more rugged that what was up there. For now, it too will be top mounted. Now before you diss the Hustler, read this. I tried to get in contact with several other vendors who still make antennas for the ham band to find a local dealer to talk to, but it appears that these folks just don't want my money. Big names who make commercial stuff too. Too bad. Thats it in a nutshell. I'll let you all know how it works after we install it. Hopefully Mother nature will cooperate....In December....in New Hampshire...... 73 all --------------------------------- Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.
