On Saturday 30 January, David ZS1DDK left home at 5am to take Andre ZS1AN and Paul ZS1V to the Riversdale repeater site. The 2m antenna system had been previously diagnosed as faulty and so the team set about removing the old antenna and feedline and installing a new feedline and upgraded antenna.

ZS1DDK eliminating some redundant adapters.

The old antenna had been installed at 6m and was also not clear of some local obstacles. The new antenna, a two stack Webb FDC145 folded dipole system was installed with its centre at about 12m AGL.

ZS1V at the new antenna position.

The RX path of the duplexer was checked on the spectrum analyser and found to be good. The TX path showed good SWR.

Duplexer receive path showing insertion loss and TX rejection

The team rounded off the day with an early dinner in Swellendam and reached home at about 6pm.