At the last operating event at Centennial Arena, we discovered that our Windom antenna was not functioning. Upon accessing the roof and looking at the antenna we discovered that the coax just above its connector to the bottom balun had corroded and broken. In fact, it totally separated in Ralph’s hands. A couple days later Jim and Eric returned and put a new end on the coax and water-proofed it.
In addition to the break, the antenna had sagged over the years and the antenna proper was hanging loosely off of the pilot line. It needed to be reattached and pulled up. The following week Jim, Eric and Joe returned to touch up the Windom. Jim and Joe accessed the roof of the curling facility and detached the antenna from its support. Eric on the roof of the arena then applied ties and tape to fix the antenna. It was then pulled back up and is now higher than when originally installed.
Following the fix, we ran our analyzer on the antenna and found it to be operational though the SWR in the 10m area was around 4.5 – a bit high but usable with a tuner. Feeling good about the results, the three went for a coffee in the café at the curling lounge.
