Good Aftenoon, I just uploaded three photos to the folder labeled "PD455 Antenna". Please take a look at the photos and see if you can help me identify who makes this part.
It is some sort of RF adapter which Celwave/RFS uses in the manufacturing process when making PD455 style antennas. Basically, it is threaded up into the base portion of the antenna, and once installed, it appears as if the antenna is terminated with an N Female jack. In reality, the antenna is actually terminated with some sort of propietary (guessing?) connection, which this adapter converts to an industry standard N Female, as specified in their product literature. This so-called propietary connection appears to be quite similar to a UHF termination, but a close inspection of the photos will show that the center insulation design is slightlty different, and the male pin up inside the threaded male end of the antenna itself looks deeper than a standard UHF male connection. Calls to RFS have been useless. They claim there are "no replacement parts" available for the Stationmaster antennas, and they do not repair them. Hard to believe that a $1000 antenna is considered throw- away material nowadays. I have contacted all of the RF connector manufacturers which I could think of (Amphenol, Kings, Delta), and while the part resembles either an Amphenol or Delta part, neither claim to make it. As you can see in the photos, what had happened is that a 1/2" Heliax jumper connected to the antenna became loose at 400+ft in the air, and the center pin arc'ed away. Upon removing the hardline N male connector, I was greeted with a cloud of carbon dust! The N female center pin was burned away. I was able to use a standard UHF Female - N Male adapter coupled to a N Female - N Female adapter, and threaded the UHF end up into the antenna, to sweep the antenna on an analyzer , verifying that the actual antenna itself is still good after being up on a tower for 10 years. I'd like to re-deploy the antenna, but I'm not a big fan of using adapters up on a tower, so I'd like to get the OEM part and properly repair the antenna. Anyone have any ideas? Eric KE2D
