Folks, My repeater partner and I have recently placed our new 440 machine. We have realized some odd issues. We bought a new Telewave ANT450F10 to put on top of the 100' tower, fed with a new piece of Andrew 5/8" heliax. We also side-mounted an old DB420 with the top a few feet down from the top of the tower with about 85' of old 7/8" Andrew heliax. So, we put smokin' new gear on top, and smokin old below it. The DB420 is spaced correctly from the tower and is set up with each half 90 degrees rotated.
The tower is on relatively high pasture land (for NE Kansas anyway) with a nice clear view all around. I'll not say we're on a hill, but on relatively high ground. We are attempting to cover two towns approximately 25 miles apart. We are 1/3 of the way from town 1 to town 2 and about 3 miles N of the highway that pretty much is a straight shot connecting them. The Telewave setup on top performs poorly. The DB420 on the side is working great. By this difference, I mean signals that are getting in full quieting on the DB420 are very noisy on the Telewave. Transmit differences mirror receive. S9 reception on the DB420, switch to the Telewave and it's S1-S3. We experience this phenomenon in all directions. Wattmeter (yes, it is a "real one" -- Telewave 44) says that things look good as far as loading both antennas -- DB420 is 1.43:1, F10 is 1.39:1. We are about to climb and take readings at the top to make sure there is no feed problem with the Telewave 'F10, and I admit that has not been done yet. We did have a discussion with Telewave, who advised that vertical alignment of the F10 (as they refer to it) is critical. We have checked alignment and even implemented a little down- tilt in the most important direction (just a few degrees). We see not real appreciable difference. For you repeater elmers out there: If we don't find a problem with the feedline on the Telewave antenna, does this make any sense? Telewave also HIGHLY recommended that the F10 isn't a good fit for this installation due to its extremely narrow vertical beamwidth, and recommended that a 4-bay dipole of theirs would be MUCH better because of the ability to tune the pattern to our desired coverage area and the increased vertical beamwidth. I always thought I wanted NARROW vertical beamwidth to keep the RF on the horizon. I would have thought that 100' up on relatively high ground (this is Kansas, after all) wouldn't have a real problem shooting over the top 10 - 30 miles away. In any event I seek advice and wisdom, and yes, we are planning to check the coax for loss at the earliest convenience. I would like to take advantage of the top slot on the tower for improved performance rather than stay on the lower spot, and will try another antenna if necessary. I'm just having a hard time imagining that the F10 has appreciably narrower vertical beam as a 9.something dBd antenna than the F10 as a 10dBd antenna, etc. etc. And it also seems counter intuitive that a taller vertical beamwidth and less gain on the horizon in this application would be better. I trust the experience and knowledge of Telewave, but I also trust the wisdom from this list, which has saved me many times. Your thoughts gentlemen? -- Cort Buffington H: +1-785-838-3034 M: +1-785-865-7206
