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Water ingress on antenna

Martin.S

Pro Member
Taking advantage of this recent fine weather I decided to do an examination and some fine tuning to my antenna (poynting xpol A002) which I haven't looked at for probably 18 months.

A few minutes of tweaking yielded a slightly better signal from -104 to -102 RSRP.

With hardly a cloud in the sky I was startled when I had some moisture hit me in the face.

I first thought that a bird had pooped on me!

Then I realised that the water was dripping out of the bottom of the antenna. A bit of poking around the rubber grommet where the cables exit from released several drips of water.

Clearly there has been water ingress over a period of time (antenna is 3 years old).
Presumably this is doing some internal damage.

Does anyone know the expected lifetime of one of these antennas?
 

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These aerials should last a long time.
My advice is to take it down, open it, clean it up and when you put it back together maybe add a bead of silicon on the edges so they shut properly.
While at it, try to investigate whether any water got into the coax. Water in the coax is a death sentence for the cable, from a functional point of view.. However since you haven't complained about performance then I guess the cables are fine.
 
Signal metrics are generally much the same as they always have been except the SINR is not as good as it used to be.
Previously the antenna was mounted at a slight angle i.e the grommet/cables weren't at the very bottom, so it's possible that water entered through the grommet. At the time the signal strength was better in that position.
It's now looking straight with cables directly at the bottom.
Think I'll let it be for the time being and monitor the situation.
 
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If even after your best efforts the water still gets in then do a Mini front seat well repair ;) and drill a hole at the lowest point as a drain.
 
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