SARC gets a new UHF VHF antenna and some tower repairs 

This is a great training film on the improper installation of the hardline connector and the improper connection of the jumper cable to the hardline.

It doesn't matter how many people you got helping. If you don't know what your doing like these guys, you'll be back up there working the hard way. What a debauchery.

Great video. always good to see how others work. Interisting to see how the antenna team started working more efficently as the project moved forward.

First time I've seen so much grease put into connectors. I did 4 years installation-commission of VHF and UHF systems, and was told in no uncertain terms to apply Si grease sparingly only to the two O-rings on the sheath-locking components, keep it away from the dielectric. Cables used were LDF 4-50 and LDF 5-50. The sheath was wiped with IPA after connection and test, wrapped with self-amalgamating tape supplied in the Andrews connector kit, then finished off with UV-resistant tape. It was all mil-stuff, so it had to be done as per manufacturer's instruction, or we could not offer a guarantee.

What a great video, and also to see all involved in one way or another. That's what make the radio hobby fun, people with the same interests getting together and enjoying such activity. Congratulations to all participants and thanks to the cameraman for the excellent close ups, detailing the connections and the skills of the installer. 73's to all from a VK2... down under!

Terry looks like he's done that a few times. It's good to see you had plenty of Indians, and a Chief, usually it's the other way around. Thanks for asking questions and showing close-ups of the connectors and hardline splices. Answered my questions, and was relevant to my search.

Good job, Terry, nice to look at

Great video. Also the U shaped coupler you are talking about is a Shackle. It's used to connect two pieces of chain together or two eyes togther and allow you to seperate them later without having to cut the chain.

A complete bodge job on the way the connectors was fitted and on other things that was done. Seemed like there was some sort of rush to get it done. Do things properly the first time round and then there will be no reason to have to go back a few weeks or months later because of problems. Guaranteed this will need to be looked at again at some point. Good job to the camera guy (uploader of this video) for the close ups and asking questions although everything was done to a very bad standard the cam guy had more sense and most likely had done a better job.

I wouldn't mind some of that hardline for 2&70. Nice job guys. 73

Good Job! I always use self amalgamating tape when sealing the connectors. It completely weatherproofs it and you don't have to worry about any water ingression, whereas ordinary electrical/insulation tape won't work properly.

Very informative and interesting. Thank you for making this video. I learned a good bit of info on connecting hard line.

Well in our case we both worked at Brown University at the time. So we put the repeater in the hut containing the astronomy dome and the antenna a two foot stub tripod out by a corner of the building. Fed it all with Belden 9913 because it was literally less than a hundred feet from repeater cabinet to antenna. In the case of the city building, my friend worked for the police department, me at the state AG's office. Put it in with police repeaters in the same cabinet.

Good job!!! Congratulations.

Thanks for the share. Lots of cooks in the kitchen on this one.

That "U-shaped coupler" you mentioned is called a shackle.

Terry seams like a fun guy.

Nice video and an interesting installation. Your questions during the video were helpful, especially to younger folks who may be interested in amateur radio. I've worked on many commercial T-Band antenna installations (that very near 70 cm amateur) and have never installed that loop just below the antenna. Perhaps for a dual band antenna, that is necessary. It's just that I've never seen it. In your replies to those that have commented, you say that the repeater works fine and I guess that's the best test. Bill KB1ULU

Jerry Is Awesome In What He Does, Kind Like a role model :)

That bit about the loop and RF current was pure BS. Also the hose clamp used to hold the loop to the tower will cut into the jacket of the coax.

I miss doing repeater site maintenance.

Perfect man, very cool u video, congratulations. i"m from brazil and radioamador too. Cya!

See around here we had access to enough tall buildings where we didn't have to deal with towers. One of our repeaters was on the top of Brown Universities Barrus-Holley hall. The other was on top of Sister Dominica Manor (Aka Bradford House).

The "U" shaped "clamp" described by the narrator is properly called a "clevis". You can Google it, you will see a good description of what and how it is properly used.

Buen trabajo..... limpio y profecional....

nice job cornbread !!

Should have trimmed the dielectric so it has no chance of affecting the copper shield.

Nice job.

yes I understand the job of a drip loop, but at the bottom not at the top! for example at a window or a hole on the wall, but at the top! ok that's fine, what about the water after the drip loop? its still going down the coax or hardline and into the window or wall. that's why I'm confused! and thanks for the reply.

Ótimo trabalho em equipe , saudações Rio de janeiro Brasil ,73 a todos.

I love this job

South Mountain ? No need for a lot of elevation .Really enjoyed the video. nice to see alot more than two at work !

I always put the waterhose on the coppertube and drive it into the ground, thats much easyer, and when the tube hits a stone you can remove it and place it somewhere else.

9:35 is the reason the copper is only on the edge of the cable do to skin effect?

73 from ZL1, nice work!

Terry was awesome.

@eugenio, Gracias!

Old guy in a rush? He'd drive me bonkers

Always, I am old school, and I do understand the "Need" in the commercial world to crimp for speed and soldering is an "art" so to speak, few of the new guys know how and many guys are just installers anyway not true technicians ,I worked for a large commercial contractor and we always soldered.

New subscriber and enjoing your videos. What kind of product is that hard line? By that I mean is it primarily used in commercial installations vs amateur installs? It must be 52ohm to mate with the coax like you did.

This is the best video I have seen in 10 years. Just being able to see you guys putting on that N to hardline adapter was superb. An awesome job I must say. The size of that hardline made me want some for Christmas. The dropping of the tower was a little tense but I was hoping for the best. Even got to see the special hints and tips on flaring the hardline shield and why. All in all I have to give this video four thumbs up. 73 N0RJP.

Ahhh Guilty Pleasures... Its a Saturday early afternoon here in Scotland, sipping my coffee, and clicking through youtube. Main reason for clicking on this link, am curious about these towers, and how they get used and utilized. So, what do I learn, that even Huge core cables are done the exact same way my brother taught me to properly do a TV cable.... RESULT !!! Thank You Todd, for spending the time to record and post this, and a huge nod of respect to the Chief, Terry, am just hoping those young indians learned a few things !!! Cause I certainly did :)

If there's any way you can find this model and make of this tower I would be very happy, I have one I just put up and can't find a make 73s

I wish I would have seen ol Terry crimp those N-connectors before I destroyed a few SMA connectors trying to figure out the best way to do it!! Except SMA is waaay smaller than N... and I soldered mine... which was... frustrating to say the least!! What was that orange rubbery looking tape he was using on the connectors? Looked almost like rubber mastic tape, but orange.

thanks man...

Remind me to never have these guys do any antenna work for me

You a ll look like a fun radio club.

23:50 Nah, that's a drip loop for rain!

What is that a seat belt from a car used to tie off? Fall protection harness are on eBay used are around $150

If only they had some way of efficiently communicating without yelling. :P

love the dude with cig lol never got an ashe in anything. and like the repair of the hardline. very nicely done. why VHF / UHF ? two repeaters or linked system?

what kind of antenna is the old one i wold like to know thanks

How important is that loop below the antenna ? How big it should be for 144-146 VHF ? Im installing my antenna soon and want to know more about this loop below the antenna because its new to me Thanks

23:52 the loop is a choke to prevent reflected rf from returning. KD9OAM

hi guys, how high is your tower? and what is the antenna your using? thanks...

Is that greased up ? I was wondering also what type of grease you were using ?

While the diamond X510 that you removed might be great TX or RX only antenna it's a terrible repeater antenna that doesn't perform well when asked to transmit and receive simultaneously as it suffers from passive intermod and will create duplex noise.. Duplex noise is all that popping and clicking you hear when a repeater is retransmitting a signal from its input. It's cause by micro arcs in the mechanical joints of the antenna created by the trasmiters RF energy .. Normally you would never hear this because most hams don't simultaneously receive a signal while transmitting AKA full duplex.. Since these wide band micro arcs are being generated inside the antenna while the repeater is receiving a signal they have a clear path to the receiver.. A dead give away is the fact that there won't be any popping and clicking when the Repeater ID's in half duplex mode, In other words when the repeater id's without a signal being received on the input.. LMR400 is yet another source of passive intermod in repeaters and has been pretty much universally banned at all commercial antenna sites. While LMR400 might be a good low loss simplex coax for a simple ham station its a terrible coax to use for full duplex repeater operation.. LMR400 is a foil shielded coax and every spot where the braid touches the foil acts like a little diode junction which creates these RF micro arcs and thus generates duplex noise.. Times Microwave sells a special type of low passive intermod coax for repeaters it's the SW series coax from Times Microwave...

whats the orange tape you put on before the black electrical tape?

Ca I adapt my Baofeng to this?

I can’t watch these ham guys it drives me nuts. Good video on how not to do a connector.

I agree, the LMR cable with 2 different shields will cause tx noise. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, cannot say enough, use coax cable with shields of different material like LMR400 or 9913 on a duplexed system. Obviously knew about putting on connectors, but not much about repeaters. I am assuming this antenna is for a repeater. The clue will be there will be cracking noise on the repeater sigs, might not happen today or tomorrow, but it will happen. The solution is to replace this cable with like even RG213. Since coax is at antenna 213 will work well. Might go with RG214, double shielded, but not necessary. Better yet move the 7/8s up the tower.

good job! 73 from PY2DS

What no stationmaster?..... galvanized hardware,super flex, PPC connectors?

13:50 Why do you use such massive coax? Do you use tremendous power or is it just to keep the losses down?

Today I buy 100 ft of Cable antenna, I love this Master of the Antenna build my UHF antenna…

Its like a Monty Python sketch LOL

Is Terry still around and doing well?

What's with loops on coax. Doesn't matter with rx but tx it sure does

nvidia t-shirt AND a cigarette? dam that guy is cool as f ck

Super

Wd9geh,, excellent job & coordination by the crew was great , the blue. Tool super.

Never never never use LMR 400 on a repeater antenna, it will cause RX intermod. Really bad if you use a RX preamp.

That tree is going to come down in that direction where those guys are standing, its something like that.

Todd, I've asked other places but I haven't been able to get a decent answer. I am currently working towards my technicians license, but I'm having a tough go at it without having someone to help me along with learning what I need to know to pass the test. Do you have any suggestions for someone just starting out in HAM radio?

Is the antenna working? I have my doubts -- the weather was much too nice when it went up. Every ham knows that antennas work well only when the weather at the time of the antenna party is miserable, with snow and freezing rain a near-guarantee that the antenna will outperform any antenna installed in pleasant weather.

Shortest repeater tower I've ever seen! LOL

is that a telavisiom transmiter hf and uhf

Is nice see people working happy all of them in the same page, not like politics or religion. You see we can work together like brothers.

The old guy is awesome!!!

You boys ever heard the term too many cooks.

Why are they choking out the Hardline by putting smaller coax from the antenna to the Hardline why not just run the Hardline direct to the antenna

great opportunity to fix the cable,too bad they didnt do anything right...that center pin on the lmr400 will fail and you should never use lmr coax on any duplexed radio system due to PIM problems with galvanic reactions in the wires mismatched shielding materials. and that antenna is not commercial its for residential...not mountain tops...winds will move the coverage depending on which way the wind is blowing.

And that is where TV comes from :)

I like the older guy in charge. At lease someone knows how to do this alright. I've been wanting to learn about how to put ends onto hardline. Thank you.

OMG! you crimp your connectors!!! Now I know why I am in such high demand I never crimp!

like the old joke, how many guys does it take to change a light bulb! LOL

I want a blue tool to make coaxial tip. hihi 73

Turn them channel locks over!

📻📻😍😍

Never did hear how the repeater worked

Being a ham myself, I really enjoyed this very exquisite video, well prepared, The question i have is: " where is SARC located? 73's de VA7MQ, Kelowna BC canada

Sorry but the insulation on the connectors will last you at best for a year.

as a controlled demolition.

c tanda oo oh ngawa pa!! baka mapa anu yan hoy!!! tulungan nyu!!

could anybody tell me what is the drip loop for on the hardline? I'm a bit confused!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ops...loop decreased the power of antenna🤔

NEVER NEVER NEVER use a hose clamp on ANY coax! That loop, is NOT needed, and adds a choke to the feed. Should have run that 7/8" right up to the antenna.

The whole time I'm hearing that guy yell; all I could think of is "If ONLY there was a way they could communicate to each other without having to yell...." ---Hmmmm

Does it take as many men as this to change a light bulb?

That line about the loop below the antenna was BS.It may be a drip loop at best but if that Diamond dual band antenna needs a choke something is wrong I'd say.Looks as if there are three breaks in the feed line.One at the hard line & smaller feed line, one below the antenna,& one up inside the collar inside the long piece of tubing at the bottom of the antenna? Why not just run the hard line to the antenna itself & do away with the extra connections however many there are? We are dealing with VHF/UHF signals & each of those extra connections are losses that in less gain on every signal on the repeater received & transmitted. 73