Hi Larry -
The thermoplastic "rubber" jacket (Belflex) has a tendency to "grab" and
then stretch, so you need to counterattack. First of all, the heat
problems in Texas these days might be hurting you - makes the jacket even
more rubbery, so get it as cool as you can before screwing on the PL -
like 70 degrees, more or less. Then apply just a tiny tad of silicone
grease or even vaseline to the jacket where it's going to contact the PL
threads and it should screw on easily. Tinning the braid could well be a
big part of your problem-- it is OK if you are VERY VERY careful, since
this coax is a lot more delicate than 213 - it is very easy to partially
collapse the foam by tinning, not to mention causing the nearby jacket to
swell a little - making your problem much worse. If you've done a lot of
PL's and are good at it, you do not need to tin the braid, and the job
will go much easier. We put 'em on by the hundreds and never tin them.
As for not soldering the body to the braid, there is no argument - don't
even consider it. It is an old CB habit, akin to folding the braid back
over the jacket and then muscling on the PL body - worked fine for awhile
at 5 watts, but even there it was not a case of whether it would fail -
just how soon. Nothing controversial about it!
Good luck,
Press Jones, N8UG, The Wireman, Inc., Landrum, SC, 29356
Sales (800)727-WIRE(9473) or orders@thewireman.com
Tech help (864)895-4195 or n8ug@thewireman.com
www.thewireman.com and the WIRELINE bargain page
Our 21st year!
On Wed, 22 Jul 1998 19:04:28 -0500 Larry Burke <lburke@wt.net> writes:
>
>
>I've made up several PL259s on lengths of flex 9913 coax from Cable
>X-Perts
>over the last week. With each connector I seem to have difficulty
>getting a
>good connection of the shield to the barrel of the PL259. Seems the
>shield
>is REALLY flexible.... as one screws on the PL259 the shield tries to
>travel
>back into the coax. (Yes, the shield was tinned). This makes it tough
>to get
>the mechanical connection afforded by the threaded barrel, not to
>mention
>leaving nothing to solder to through the holes. I haven't had this
>problem
>on RG-8, RG-213, or even non-flex 9913. Any trick that I'm missing?
>
>You might also comment on whether you normally solder the shield to
>the
>barrel or depend solely on the threads in the connector. This is
>always a
>controversial discussion!
>
>Larry WI5A
>Friendswood, TX
>
>
>--
>FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
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>
>
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