Diamond D-130J discone antenna

[Steve]

I have today taken down my Diamond D-130J discone to give it a bit of a clean-up - it's been in its current location for five years. Once I got it down I found very little corrosion - in fact, the only serious corrosion was in three small washers used with the screws that secure the hub in the top of the tube (if you've got a D-130J you'll know what I mean).

I cleaned all the elements and the tube with steel wool and they've come up really well. One thing I found is that some of the elements that make up the 'cone', which are hollow, had filled up with water. I think I'll remove the black plastic 'ends' from these elements when I re-erect the antenna.

Overall, the antennas has withstood the conditiosn really well. It's 15 years old and I'm confident it will last many more.