Solarcon A99 Cracking

[Gerowen]

I have a CB radio base station in the house and a mobile in my truck.  I talk to the locals and use it to talk to the wife since it works in more places than the cell phone does around locally.  I take my antenna down every few years and wipe all the tree sap and dirt and pollen and crap off it with some rubbing alcohol, then give it a good coat of clear paint to help seal it against water.  The antenna has a drain hole in the base of it, but I figure the more water I can keep out of it, the longer the copper wire inside will last.

 

It had been 3 or 4 years since I painted it last and when I took it down I found a crack in the middle section.  On top of that, when I was tightening the middle section back down I noticed it started turning inside its base by the tuning coil, so the glue has broken loose.  Thing seems to work alright since I was still able to talk to some guys in the next county over, but I'll probably retire and replace it next summer.  Hopefully that paint I put on it will keep water from getting into that crack and freezing this winter.

 

For those who don't know, the A99 is a fiberglass antenna, so water aside, years of it flopping in the wind eventually wears on the fiberglass, especially after the factory gel coat wears off.