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Rest of Colorado Antenna Engineer Assistance needed

R

RickyB

We are experiencing some issues with our antenna here at KACM 91.3 FM, Montrose. We have a new Jampro directional antenna that is having issues with freezing weather. The antenna is equipped with radomes, but for some reason in the freezing weather the SWR shoots up and the Nautel transmitter shuts down. In warmer temps, the signal is fine and the transmitter runs very happy.
We have been trying to locate an engineer who can inspect the antenna and possibly fix the issue.
The antenna is located 140 feet on the tower which is at the summit of Water Dog Peak about 10,000 ft elevation.
Any one interested in helping out or knows of someone to recommend, please contact me at [email protected]. Thanks for any assistance.
 
Have you contacted Jampro? Is there a warranty? 30 years ago I called them and they were very helpful. If you can get a human, they might have a suggestion.

If worse comes to worse, find a spray on "wax" that works for material that the raydome is made out of. If it is fiberglass there are all kinds of boat products or someone with a Corvette can tell you what works to make the water bead off. I bet there is someone that sprays with drones that could do this economicly without climbing the tower.

Never worked with radomes but a few stations around here without heaters on short towers with ice issues use to spray a WD40 type product on the bays every 2 years.
 
secondchoice said:
Have you contacted Jampro? Is there a warranty? 30 years ago I called them and they were very helpful. If you can get a human, they might have a suggestion.

If worse comes to worse, find a spray on "wax" that works for material that the raydome is made out of. If it is fiberglass there are all kinds of boat products or someone with a Corvette can tell you what works to make the water bead off. I bet there is someone that sprays with drones that could do this economicly without climbing the tower.

Never worked with radomes but a few stations around here without heaters on short towers with ice issues use to spray a WD40 type product on the bays every 2 years.
Click to expand...
Thankyou for the suggestions. We have sent an inquiry to Jampro but so far no reply. The instructions make some vague remarks about pressurization but no mention as to how that is accomplished since our RF cable isn't a pressurized.
I hope someone has experience in this area.
Cheers!
 
I can only guess this was pieced together.
You should call the engineer that was responsible for the whole project. Most likely what has happened is the antenna was supposed to be used with a "pressurized" feed line. In theory there is some heat due to signal loss in the transmission cable. I personally doubt there is enough heat generated for a cold mountain top. The pressurized uses an inert gas "nitrogen is the cheapest" or I have heard of but never personally worked with an "air dryer system".

If I was paying for a tower climb, I would install the correct electric heaters for the antenna and ditch the domes.

We had a station in Atlanta "WNNX" that lighting set their domes on fire and screwed up their antenna.
 


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