Wow...sounds like somehow, moisture was released inside the building.
If it's 20ºF outside the building, and 22ºF inside the building, it's hard to
imagine how frost could form on the equipment, since the relative humidity
indors would have to be lower, unless...there was water forced up through a
crack in the floor, etc.
73,
Paul, AE4KR
- Original Message -
From: N1BUG
To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 4:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Moisture/condensation (was: Duplexers)
Condensation and moisture can be a strange thing...
I have 2 meter and 440 repeaters in my own unheated building on a
local hill. Several years ago in the middle of a cold Maine winter,
both repeaters started having assorted audio problems and controller
glitches. Upon arriving at the site I was horrified to find a thick
layer of white frost completely covering every surface inside the
building. Floor, walls, ceiling, every bit of equipment, cables,
everything pure white and hairy with frost. I scraped away some
frost and removed the cover from the repeater controller cabinet...
and was even more horrified to find the controller PCB completely
covered in frost! Couldn't even recognize the larger individual
components on the board...
What to do? I VERY slowly brought up the building temperature with a
temporary heater over a period of a few days. The frost slowly
vanished, not so much by melting and forming water but by
dissipating into the air. Everything returned to functioning normally.
The funny thing is, it never happened before or since. Just that one
time. I never did figure out exactly what conditions caused it.
Paul N1BUG
