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Water drain

Sonwatcher

Active Member
Apr 6, 2005
3,402
26
48
Colorado
I have an alum. antenna . I was wondering if it would harm anything if I drilled a small drain hole for any water that may get in around where the sections join?
 

Yeah, I got up and took it down and it has one. We have had rain all week and a heavy storm Thursday. My SWR went up and I thought that may have been the cause. I found that the screw that holds the upper sections to the lower one came out and the upper sections dropped about 3 ft. into the lower section. Put everything back in place and have a 1.1 SWR now :)
 
The Avanti Sigma 5/8 (AV-170) has a small weep hole just above a screw plug used to keep the water out of the matching network.

The I-10K is lacking a weep hole just above the fiberglass rod, so I drill one on every antenna I work on. Water can get trapped above the fiberglass over time. Although, its not as critical on the I-10K as it is on the Sigma 5/8!
 

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