John, It sounds like you already have a G7? How old is it and how does it operate? I am trying to figure out how it stood up to your WX Elements. My two cents .In WNY on the highest hill in Allegany County I had and still have a G7. I had it up for about seven years at 160 until I got a used stationmaster and used the Repeater-Builder Article to bring it down in frequency to 147 MHz At that point we pulled the G7 put up the Stationmaster and also increased the cable from ½ to 7/8. The G7 was cleaned up and put back on the tower at about 60 for packet. The antenna was side mounted and we used a PVC T and piece of PVC Pipe to stabilize the top from whipping around. I would never top mount one. Also there are two weak points in my opinion, one being the radials. If I ever put up a new G7 I will replace the Radials with solid aluminum, as the hollow stock radials are fragile. The coaxial connector is also fragile. We had a tower crew, put a G7 on a commercial tower and they broke the connector right out of the base installing he pigtail. We sent the next one up with the pig tail installed and weatherproofed on the ground which I recommend. We have another one in G7 in Pa. on top of a radar tower and that has been in service for 12 plus years. My experience has been good as I have been where you are that you have to do with what you can afford.
73 JIM KA2AJH From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:repeater-buil...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of W3ML Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2009 10:09 AM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Antenna question Hi again, We are looking to replace that used antenna after getting 100 feet of new Andrews 1/2" donated to our club. Now I realize that the DB type antenna is the best, but we do not have 800 bucks to buy one. So, my question is should we just get a new G7-144 to replace the used G7 or is there another type of vertical that we could get that would be good. Being in North Indiana, our winters can be quite brutal, so we would probably want something durable. Any suggestions. 73 John, W3ML
