[Dstar] Antenna upgrade at VK5REX B

[Michael Carey]

Hi Will,
The existing antenna was also an RFI SMD4-67, the same as the new one. 
But the old antenna was mounted on a 6m pole on top of the building, the 
new antenna is 45 metres AGL. You can see the tower here :-
http://www.users.on.net/~michaelcarey/Tower01.jpg
The new antenna is mounted on the short mast extension on the top of the 
tower, just below the old Austar MDS antenna. I wanted to use a vacant 
antenna mount on the tree at the top of the tower for a two bay UHF 
dipole array... but that is an Optus zone and it was just too hard to 
organize permission to go there. However, the old Austar antenna and the 
support mast is my domain and I was free to do what I wanted.
Running on two antennas also helped work around the problem I was 
experiencing with not enough TX/RX isolation.  Until the duplexer issue 
can fully be resolved, I'm happy to run on two antennas.
Michael.
VK5ZEA

Will wrote:
> Hello Michael,
>
> What was the antenna that was replaced..?
>
> Will
> VK6UU
>
>
>
>
> On Sun Nov 29  9:12 , Michael Carey <michaelcarey at internode.on.net> sent:
>
>   
>> Hi Everybody,
>> This morning (29th Nov) at 0900 a brand new RFI Folded Dipole antenna 
>> was installed on top of the tower at the VK5REX B D-Star repeater site. 
>> I was able to utilize a rigging company that was in town on another job 
>> which saved me any travel costs. The riggers were delayed a few days 
>> because of the inclement weather and were more than happy to help me out 
>> before heading back to Adelaide. The two guys who climbed the tower had 
>> it done within an hour. The existing ex-Austar MDS cable was used and 
>> the antenna plugged directly into a 7/8" EIA flange to N type adapter.
>>
>> Because of the ongoing isolation issues with the current duplexer, I am 
>> currently running VK5REX B on a two antenna setup. The existing antenna 
>> is now the transmit antenna, and the new antenna on the top of the tower 
>> is used for receive.
>>
>> Initial on-air (non scientific) tests show a marked improvement on 
>> receive performance. I can use low power on my IC-91AD radio from 
>> anywhere inside my house where as before, I would have trouble even 
>> using high power. In coming weeks I will be performing DX receive tests 
>> to see how VK5REX B is now performing.
>>
>> You can't imagine how big my smile is!!
>>
>> Michael.
>> VK5ZEA
>> _______________________________________________
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>> )
>>     
>
>
>
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