Steve,
Your comments on butt connectors are very timely. Any-old kind of butt
connector ain't the same. Just completed an installation of
tower/beam/rotator, etc. The rotator a Ham IV with the 9 pin (8 used) Amp
connector. Since this connector is a pain to assemble, decided to use the
old one on a short leader of lighweight cable - cut the cable, installed RS
butt connectors to an 8 pin trailer quick disconnect and then butt
connectors to the new HD (2 #16/ 6 #18)rotator control wires. Thus giving
32 possibilities for connection failures. You guessed it - worked fine on
the ground, but the stress of mounting the cable pulled some butt connectors
apart. A better crimping tool would have helped a bunch. Only the brake
release functioned. Back up the tower and everything redone simply splicing
the wires and securing everything properly. Dumb, makes for a long day.
Getting older faster than getting smarter is painful.
73
Phil
----- Original Message -----
From: <UpTheTower@aol.com>
To: <SteppIR@yahoogroups.com>; <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2007 6:19 PM
Subject: [TowerTalk] Splicing rotator/control wires
> Howdy --
>
> When I'm splicing non-RF cables - e.g. rotator control cables,
SteppIR
> cables, etc. - I usually use good old crimp butt connectors. I've used
> hundreds of them over the years and never had a problem.
>
> Recently I had to repair a MonstIR that had spun in an M2 Orion
rotator
> (another story) and ripped the coax and control cable. My customer works
for
> the local telephone company and provided some AVAYA 709-SC connectors.
> They're typically used with JKT telephone pairs but worked fabulously
with the big
> SteppIR cable. You just push the non-stripped wires into the end of the
> connector and squeeze it together with a pair of pliers. They're clear so
you can
> see the wire pairs are connected correctly and that they're pushed in far
> enough - you just about can't screw them up. They even have some silicone
in
> them that squishes out when you seat them, providing a layer of weather
proofing.
>
> The connectors are for wire sizes 22 thru 26 gauge and are great for
> rotator cable too. Google the product nomenclature and you'll turn up a
couple
> of vendors.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve K7LXC
> TOWER TECH -
> Professional tower services for hams
>
>
>
> ************************************** See what's free at
http://www.aol.com.
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|