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Life expectancy of an A99?

I don't know how old the one I have is, but it was painted with flat black spray can paint and it lasted 2 good summers in FL heat and weather, no damage at all to it. Looks like it did when I put it up. And it was up before that at another persons qth, not sure how long. Not saying it's anything special, all I know is the black paint kept it from splintering or having any visible damage that I can tell. And I have handled it without gloves and never gotten any fiberglass on my hands. So the paint must help that too. Just my experience with one. Since getting the sirio tornado, I will never go back to fiberglass. Next antenna might be the sirio vector 4000. Just gonna see if the tornado can make it a month since I have raised it. More wind the higher I go, but at 27ft to feedpoint it does well. We had a good storm roll through here yesterday and wind gusts were up to 20mph or more at times and antenna held up fine!!
 
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222dbfl,, how do you handle the spanish moss? i am all the time having to figure some way to clean moss off and i dont mean the long stringy stuff but the little buds that blow on and start growing on antenna.....
 
You know I never have had that issue either, the moss growing that is. I'm not sure if it's the black paint or what but my old ass antenna that is sitting in the storage shed now, which is an old A99, shows no signs of cracking or splintering and when I took it down it was working as well as an A99 can be expected to work at 18ft off the ground to the feedpoint.
 
You guys may laugh,

I have a friend that taped his a99 with black electrical tape 11 years ago, it is still in the air today.

Florida QTH so we get some big winds, heavy thunderstorms and won't mention the heat from the Sun.

Black electrical tape will lay in the yard for years and still stick to your shoes when you walk on it.

Just my 2 cents
 
A few coats of marine grade spar varnish will protect the fiberglass for years. Weathered antennas can be very lightly sanded (use gloves!!) and then the spar varnish applied. I have built a few HF mobile antennas and used spar varnish to protect the fiberglass shafts.

I did that with my PDL-II spreader arms. Also came recommended by Cubex.

73,
Brett
 

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