Gantry wash

This is our gantry wash...it gets the truck clean but it's rough on antennas...click the play button to view. Please feel free to leave a comment..click on COMMENT, below this video.

For more information on these gantry systems, click on this link: Truck Gantry Wash

Gantry, 1....Antenna, 0

Greetings...

As some of you know, I've been having some troubles being heard, hitting repeaters...now i know why...when I mounted this antenna on a piece of metal on the roof of my truck cab, I also sealed it with Goop...which is made for sealing...

To keep our fleet looking good, our company uses an expensive gantry wash system, which is mounted on rails and moves forward and backward spraying the tractor and trailer with dozens of highpressure nozzles. There are also some rotating brushes that scrub the side of the trailers. This is similar to an automatic car wash, but much more powerful.

Well the gantry wash and the sunlight UV de-gooped it...and the highpressure nozzles injected some harsh cleaning fluids and mild acid into the antenna base...I'm not sure about the coil yet.
When I finally got around to checking the SWR, it was WAY too high.

This is what 8 months of weekly gantry washes did to my antenna....when I sliced the foil open it dribbled some yucky rusty water out of the inside...and you can just make out the little blue capacitor soldered between the terminals.

Well now I have to figure out how to mount an antenna on a truck with no visor over the windshield, no upper mirror arms, and a fiberglass cap for the cab.