Batboard

My Saber III fell off the bed and the antenna broke. The rubber broke about 3/4 inch above the connector exposing the coiled wire inside. I have since wrapped a layer of gaffes tape around the place that cracked open. I do most of my transmitting in the 146 MHZ area on 2 meters. I do have a Motorola black dot antenna. Would I hurt the Saber's transmiter if I switch antennas? Should I keep on using the old antenna (seems to work fine)? Or, should I just buy another one? Thanks for your help.

Switch antennas to what? The Saber VHF antennas are made in several versions. You probably would not damage the radio if you used an antenna which is slightly shorter or longer than the one you broke. However, instead of using gaffer's tape on the broken antenna why don't you try heavy-duty heatshrink tubing? You can put it on the entire antenna and the antenna will look like new. There are also antennas available from various mfrs. which are considerably shorter than the standard VHF Saber antennas. These also present the proper radiation resistance to the radio but they're somewhat less efficient, which makes them pretty bad radiators, because all of the constantly-loaded VHF antennas stink as far as efficiency goes. Convenience yes; efficiency, no.

Tom, W2NJS
...in D.C.

If you are primarily using 2m frequencies, you might consider the switching to the 8505816K22 antenna (with the yellow base). It's tuned for 136-150.8, as opposed to the standard black bottom antenna, which optimally does 150-158.

I doubt you'd do any harm to your PA that close to the edge of the tuning, but it sure won't help your performance either.

HumHead has a good idea...till you get another antenna! I saw several for sale on ebay! (last week)

Try calling the 800 number on this website! they have saber antenna's!
http://www.chiefsupply.com/antennas_motorola_expo.phtml


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: radioEd on 2002-01-08 19:20 ]</font>

Thanks for all of your help!