I called RFS this afternoon. Sad times, indeed. First of all no one there could identify the connector/adapter part. Second of all, they claim "no spare parts available" for Stationmaster antennas. I even tried to buy a set of radials for a PD455 that has lost them, and they don't even offer them separately!
Anyone have a bad UHF Super StationMaster that they want to sell off the radials or coaxial connector/adapter from? To top matters, the antennas aren't even built in the states anymore, and are contracted out to a non-RFS company. One more nail in our industrial coffin! One another note - has anyone run a PD455 with and without the radials, and noted the difference in performance? Eric KE2D --- In [email protected], "kk2ed" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Good Evening, > > I have a PD455 Super Stationmaster that is about 12 years old. I > recently replaced it due to and SWR issue. I suspected a jumper > issue. But since it is so high up on a tower, I didn't want to take > any chances while having the climbers rig the tower, and pay twice, > so I went ahead and replaced the antenna as well as the jumper. > > Well, come to find out, the problem was that the LDF4-50 jumper came > loose from the side arm, and the stress pulled the center pin in on > the N connector, thus causing an arc condition inside the N female > connector at the bottom of the antenna. To make matters worse, the > actual N Female termination was half unscrewed from the bottom of the > antenna. > > Once on the ground, I decided to unscrew it out completely. To my > suprise, it looks like the antenna is actually terminated into > something resembling a UHF male connector embedded into the end of > the inner assembly, and a UHF female to N female adapter is screwed > in at the factory, providing the N female termination as ordered I'm > guessing that if some other termination (DIN or UHF) is ordered, a > different adapter is screwed in. > > Anyone familiar with this adapter, or know where I can obtain said > replacement adapter? I have some standard UHF female - N female > barrel adapters, but they are much shorter and not of the quality > like the Celwave unit. I don't want to trust a cheap adapter at 500ft > in the air! > > I'll call RFS when I get a chance, but based on recent correspondence > with them, I don't hold much hope getting any support from them. Sad > part is their old factory in Marboro NJ was a mile from my office - > in the early 90's telecom boom days I used to drive my truck there > and pick 30 Statiomasters up at a clip, no cardboard tubes needed! > Now their old office and testing grounds is a strip mall, and the > factory land has been surrounded by million dollar homes! > > > Eric > KE2D >
