Batboard

does anyone know if the plastic coating on the antena comes off would it affect how the radio receives or transmits,swr problem,etc. when the plastic part would start falling off (from age i would guess) i would just get a new one. my job has a bunch off these radios with this problem and they just won't replace them. some people tell me it doesn't matter about the plastic on the antena and others tell me it will. just wondering...

The metal antenna underneath the plastic coating is coated so that it won't come into
contact with other surfaces, especially metal surfaces, which would seriously detune the
radio. On receive it's not an operational threat, though it might affect the sensitivity of
the radio. On transmit it's a completely different situation, because if the antenna is
shorted to another piece of metal for any length of time you could damage the transmit
capability of the radio, necessitating a fix in the shop which would not be cheap.

If your people absolutely won't buy new antennas then get a roll of plastic shrink tubing, cut pieces to length, and then shrink them with a heat gun onto the antenna.

By the time the plastic starts to disintegrate the center contact wire is usually broken too. A small 24 gauge wire from the center pin to the bottom of the radiator.

Antennas are cheap when figuring the cost of just one blown power amp module repair.

ok. i was thinking that it couldn't be too good for the radio with it like that but the guys at work are saying it just a cosmetic thing... boy where they wrong. and we wonder why the radios work like garbage. i will try to talk some sense into my superviser on this one and save them a few bucks. thanks for everyones input which has been very helpful.