My Ham Radio Antenna Is Failing, Lets Replace It!

Follow me on my weekend where a bunch of my stuff BROKE! My Focusrite Scarlet 4i4 required for the live stream died along with the 70cm band on my roof antenna. Time to replace it all!

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[toddhowell]

Pro Tip: When you use the TDR like that, run it from both ends and make sure it matches. That way you know you don't have a discontinuity near the other connector.

[garycook]

When wrapping your connections @18:06, always start the wrap below the connection, and work your way up. Do not start wrapping from above the connection. If wrapped from the bottom- up, the wrap overlaps itself like roof shingles do, encouraging water to flow over the wraps instead of in between them. Some people never figure out how water gets in their coax; this is normally what they did wrong.

[WillWWRP]

Always be safe when you go on the roof. If it has too much "slope", better play it safe and get a professional. Oh, I would not recommend the Secret Service.

[mariodesmo]

I installed a tri-band (23cm/70cm/2m) antenna from Diamond that is mechanically identical to your antenna (from what I can see in the video), and it's worked very well for more than 20+ years. I took it down when I moved last year and inspected it. Everything was as perfect. I did a quick cleaning on it and painted it white again since I could just barely see fiberglass underneath the original paint in some areas. I reassembled it, put it back together and it's back up again. Works like a charm. I think the build quality of the Comet/Diamond antennas is top notch. Good Luck!

[ChrisKDYSW]

Now I understand the whole weather proofing the coax and antenna. Thanks Josh!

[PopeyeFPV]

I went to HRO Anaheim today, first time ever. I walked in and said, "Josh sent me! " :) Lol, one guy said " Josh sends everybody!" (Really nice guys in there btw. I was very impressed actually, lots of knowledge, awesome place overall) I bought the Kenwood D75 and a few accessories to go with it. Anyhow, I appreciate you Josh. Great YT channel. KM6PIR ...73 👍

[MaryBrownForFreedom]

Fiberglass gel coat coming off, and maybe fiberglass splinters... you can rough it up with sandpaper and paint it to use it as a mast for something...

You should cut the electrical tape and push it down with no tension on it when you reach the end. Stretching makes it loosen over time. If exposed to wind it can then unravel. My electrician dad hollered at me if I stretched and broke the tape!

[henry]

LOL... Guitar Center "the place you go to lust after stuff that you won't buy"... almost the same can be said for HRO!

[kgmmhamradio]

I too am running the same CX-333 and it has been a fantastic performer on all three bands. It has held up very well for the past 2 years it has been up here it HOT Florida. Great video as always Josh!

[BurtonChristmasLites]

Josh I tried to look through the comments and not sure if I have seen this listed. I have several repeaters and also help some with the Skywarn Linked Repeater System here in Georgia. The capacitors in those antennas (all brands) are notorious for popping with lightning static hits. Many people will take off the "store bought" caps and replacing them with higher voltage caps. Also many folks will solder the brass fittings after tightening them. REAL important to also leave the weep hole at the bottom of the antenna open. Even when sealing up the coax to the antenna. You may not have the issues in CA but here in GA, with the humidity, heating and cooling... lots of moisture can happen within those radomes. Robert KD4YDC

[graywolf]

Josh, you do such a great job with your presentation skills; clear voice, no wind noise when outside, excellent speaking voice, same tonal volume, all of which makes it so easy to follow your presentations. Great job on this video, loved it.

[TroySmoot]

Fantastic summary! Thank you. Just what I needed as a newbie working through my first antenna.

[WGHW]

Josh, here is a hint from an OLD Ham. When installing the coax seal and tape, think of shingles on your roof and water flow. My final wrap is always from bottom to top. I’m not sure it really makes a difference but I saw professional tower guys doing this many years ago, so I do it and it makes sense.

[digitalradiohacker]

Hi Josh,
I've been watching for a while - Just subscribed.
I work commercial LMR installs in the UK - Mostly Motorola.

TDR - Time Domain Reflectrometry
Send a signal down an unterminated coax, and the signal will hit the far end and bounce (high SWR). Measure the magnitude of the reflected signal and the TIME it took to return, and you will know the distance to the "fault" (could just be the end of the cable). You can only do this if you know the speed of the signal. RF speed is constant, so the only variable is the VF (Velocity Factor) of the coax (speed of Rf through that particular design of coax). You need to enter the VF into the meter so that it can work out the speed - if it doesn't know the VF, it can't know the speed so it is not going to measure the distance to fault accurately.

Colinears:
Pretty much all colinears are made the same. The tube is fibreglass with gel-coat finish. The tube is sealed to the fittings with epoxy resin (JB Weld).
Once the antenna has had some years in the sun, the infra-red and ultra-violet attack, and this causes the gel-coat to oxidise (white residue) and the epoxy to become brittle.
The good news, is that the actual antenna part is literally just a copper wire. It is effectively impervious to the weather, and it is only put into the tube to keep it upright.

Fibreglass tubes: Sand with 600 wet and dry paper, rinse off with water, dry them and then hit with spraypaint of your choosing. You now have another 10 years out of them. The epoxy may be discoloured, but I'll wager it is just fine - the various manufacturers seem to have learned that cheaping out on the epoxy resin = bad reputation.

Pull the wire out of the tubes and just clean up the ends with scothbrite.

The tarnishing on the radials is not a problem. Even at DC, you would need something like a micro-ohmeter to measure the resistance. Flush the connector end of the antenna out with carb-cleaner and then send a blast of deoxit through and you will be golden.

Reassemble exactly as you did - Self amalg-tape starting from the bottom (overlaps like tiles for water run-off) and then cover the self amalgamating tape with electricians tape - Self amalg is not UV stable wheras electricians tape is.

Try to leave less coiled up cable flapping in the wind - it will weaken the joints and lead to issues like you had.
Get some proper cable cleats for LMR to secure it.


Hope this helps!

[deltannerjr]

I love how all these people are giving you advice. blows my mind. shaking my head. thanks for all you do.

[TheGeekiestGuy]

Speaking of too many hobbies, I just scored a drone, and I'm working on even more licensing. You can never have too many hobbies. I just need to make time for the fun ones now.
I'm on the hunt for a triband, and i need to resurrect the good old yaesu ft60. I only need a battery, but I'm thinking upgrade to one of the other, slightly newer, yaesu ht's that's waterproof and triband.
Thank you, as always, for the awesome content. I've been missing streams, but I'm still a member because I love the way you help the world with your content, brada man. 🤙🏾

[WGHW]

You should wrap the tape like shingles on your roof, bottom to toop, such that water runs off not in.

[Malloc]

Ha, you threw me for a loop. Early on I was like "oh no and you had engine trouble too?" (your front "engine" hood was open). "Ohhhh, it's electric." Silly me.

[jonathancotner]

TDR = Time Domain Reflectromity. It pinpoint the change in impedence on the line. Which in your case is the open end of the coax, and in others the location of the 1st fault in the line. Every VNA can do this, including the nano VNA

[romienwwr]

Those brackets aren't supposed to mount to the wall, they are meant to couple to a piece of mast pipe. If you were to get that above your roof line the SWR would be "flat as a pancake". I've had a 333 deployed for a number of years now, amongst others. 73 N8WWR