No Weatherproof Boot?

[daydreamer]

I have an antenna on a tower (It looks like a Winegard HD7082P) that was here when I bought the house 6 years ago. I do not know how old it is. It also has a Winegard preamp with 75 ohm in and out mounted up there. But I noticed there are no weatherproof boots on any of the connections. What problems could moisture cause? I have problems getting low VHF channels 2 and 3. From channel 10 up it works ok.
Also it has RG-59 running down from the antenna/preamp setup. How much signal would you lose say on a run of 30 or 40 feet? I live in a fringe area and was wondering if it would help to replace it with RG-6.
The tower is also slightly bent from the roof line to the top (about 10 feet or so). Maybe 6inches or a foot to the east. Can I put a guy wire on it and is there any way to straighten it?
Thanks for your replies.

 

[lunkie]

Sounds like it's been up there awhile. The winegard is a good antenna, if it looks like it's in good shape keep it. I think I would replace the coax and preamp. After all them years with no boot, you probably have moisture in the preamp and coax. Use good RG-6. As for the tower, trying to guy wire straighten it might put stress somewhere else. You might want to consider replacing the bent section or taking it down and trying to straighten and re-enforce it some how. You don't mention a rotor, is the antenna pointed at your weaker vhf stations?

 

[daydreamer]

It has a Channel Master rotor up there too. I can point it to receive Champaign/Decatur/Springfield and also Terre Haute. I was thinking of replacing the pre-amp with a CM 7777 and adding a separate UHF antenna above the current antenna for better UHF reception. Also I was thinking of replacing the coax with RG6 too.

 

[Rick0725]

sounds like a great plan. suggest a 91xg for uhf mounted on top...light in weight, great performer, and can mount the two antennas on a shorter mast with the proper spacing between the 2 antennas.

just be careful with your preamp selection. the cm7777 is not suggested in the yellow antennaweb zone, less than 30 or so miles from the tower, short run from antenna to distribution point. If you use a single input preamp you would combine the 2 antennas with a cm0549 vhf/uhf combiner.

I improved my uhf performance by adding a 91xg to my hd8200p setup.

 

[Larry1]

The bend in the tower might be due to movement in the connections of the tower sections. Over time, if there is any movement, the bolts holding the sections together will wear and the holes will start to be oval shaped. This happened to my tower. I took it down, painted it, drilled out the holes and used larger bolts to hold it together. It is now very firm as the movement in the sections was eliminated. The holes for the bolts to connect the sections of the tower together were only drilled out enough to remove the oval shape and for the new bolts fit very tight. Took a couple of weekends to do in the summer, but has eliminated problems in the future. You might want to check the mounting plate of the tower to the ground, as they rust out over time. It also allows you to check and repair the braceing of the tower (if not self supporting) as it too over time may need firming up.
If the tower is braced to the house at the roof line, and it is only 10 feet above that, you should not need any guy wires. Bracing at the roofline should be sufficent. With new RG6 being very inexpensive, it would not cost very much to change it anyways.

 

[Hall]

I would be very careful with the tower in regards to trying to straighten it. I'll bet if you do, you do more damage than good. At most, secure it so that it stops any more bending vs trying to straighten it.