At 09:28 AM 2/5/2007, Steve Katz wrote:
>Amphenol lists the dielectric as "mica-filled phenolic" good for -55C to
>+149C.
>
>In 41+ years of using these on thousands of antenna installations, I've
>never actually had one fail.
>
>I've used PTFE dielectric PL-259s also, but they were non-Amphenol brand and
>I've had several fail. Not necessarily due to the Teflon, but just overall
>quality and workmanship.
I think that's the key thing. Crummy connectors are crummy
connectors regardless of the materials.
In the space biz, they tend to place a high premium on things like
consistency of material properties, outgassing, manufacturing
tolerances, and so forth. I would imagine that PTFE scores better on
those sorts of things than mica phenolic composites. We're also not
very cost sensitive, at least for connectors. And, of course, nobody
uses PL-259s in flight hardware anyway. (Although... they ARE used in
modified form in some test equipment like HV power supplies)
Jim
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