On Sep 1, 2007, at 7:08 PM, Ron Wright wrote: > I've seen good fiberglass antennas last 20 or more years in harsh > enviroments and still show much life left.
Up here, above 10,000 MSL, the UV rays eat up the fiberglass and they don't last any longer than 10 years, either. :-) That is... if they aren't turned into hundreds of little fiberglass toothpicks by lightning, which usually gets them first. Side-mounted with a top stabilization arm, they last about as long as the folded-dipole arrays. Without a stabilization arm (top-mounted) they tear themselves up pretty quickly in 100 MPH+ winds at the mountain-tops. > I think anything metal or antenna elements exposed will have > electrical problems due to damage to the connections. Having > inside something would at least keep out much of this. The > fiberglass radom might deterate some, but the electrical elements > would still be intact. Of course if there is leakage then the > elements can get inside and do damage. Seen people here "de-fuzz" old fiberglass antennas by re-glassing them, hand mitts, curing time, big mess. Not sure I'd want to mess with it. > I am deffinitly not thinking of one of the Ham ventage antennas for > their fiberglass is little more than paper, hi. I have a ham-type Comet up that's been up for about 10 years, last time I touched it, it has a nice layer of fiberglass "dust" on it and it's probably getting near the end of it's life... or past it. It's not in repeater service, it's one of their tri-band things with the tuning stuff for 6m. Mostly it's just up there on the house as another vertical stick with a little gain for when I need something that's 22' in the air for whatever... not for duplex service. -- Nate Duehr, WY0X [EMAIL PROTECTED]
