New Antenna!
New Antenna!
Replacement of the antenna
The repeater’s antenna has been replaced. The old Diamond X50NA (probably about 4 dB gain) has been replaced with a commercial Hustler HD6-43050 antenna. The Hustler is spec’d at 6 dBd, but the performance curves at our frequency place it at about 7.5 with an expectation that it’s probably better than spec and the Diamond is worse than spec.
Old antenna = 2.5 lbs, new antenna = 21.
Old antenna = 5.6’ length, new antenna = 14.5
Old antenna = 200 watts max, new antenna = 500
And about 6x the cost of the Diamond.
Reports seem to indicate that there is a definite improvement with the new antenna.
Monday, August 17, 2015