CTB04ELL and ELL distance greatly reduced this year - need advice

[Littlegiant]

Bought a new CTB04ELL and stand alone ELL last year 12/2020 and it worked great.  Units were 150 feet apart in open field.  This year if I get 15 feet away this signal connection drops.  The ELL seems to be working correctly via the Hardware utility program as does the CTB04ELL when hooked directly to the USB/RS-485 adapter.  Nothing in the area even remotely near the units is operating in the 900MHz band so I am lost as to why such a drastic range reduction.  Any ideas would be appreciated.  Thanks

[basis21b]

A number of years ago I managed to severely bend an antenna on an ELL.   I presume something within the antenna was fractured.  The result was the ELL signal was reduced significantly.  I'm not sure that is your problem but something to consider.

[Littlegiant]

Thanks.  Thought about that too.  I need to find where to get another antenna.  So far LOR has not been able to help much

[Littlegiant]

For those who needs this, I did find that the antenna on my ELL was broken inside.  I used my RIgol RSA3-15N spectrum analyzer, which can directly see the output power of any transmitter, on the CTB04ELL and stand alone ELL.  The CTB04ELL had power levels close to what I expected given the distance claim and my test antenna and setup.  The stand alone ELL had a significantly lower power output, roughly 25dbmV lower, which in layman terms is HUGE.  That had the broken antenna.  After some digging I found that LOR uses the Linx Technologies ANT-916-CW-HW antenna.  Ordered a couple ($10 each at Digikey), got them in and retested.  Surprise surprise (well not really) the stand alone ELL output was back up to full transmitting power.  I plan to test in my system tonight.

 

So, for those needing it, you can now order your own new antennas.

[k6ccc]

Great.  As I recall, if the ELL is going to be exposed to weather, the seal around the antenna is critical...