On 05/22/2016 02:33 PM, john@kk9a.com wrote:
The only time I had this happen was when I used Belden's garden hose 9913
coax and a connector downstream got burnt. I have never seen a water
stained connector.
I'm not sure stained is the right word but I have seen this more
than once... and wish I'd had the foresight to save at least one for
future reference. They were male/female pairs that when taken apart
had white/gray powder on the center pin and socket. My theory is
that this was somehow caused by water eroding the solder, but I
don't know that for a fact. I do know that exposed solder on
antennas is eaten away in just a few years here. I also noted that
the coax associated with the aforementioned connectors had blackened
copper conductors extending many feet back from the connectors - a
sure sign water had been in there. I have seen this "substance" at
least once in the threads of a UHF connector pair also.
On at least one occasion I found massive amounts of a similar yet
different powdery substance in a connection where I had kludged a
PL259 onto aluminum jacket 1/2" CATV cable and then failed to keep
water out. There was so much of this crap accumulated in there I
could barely get the connector apart without breaking something. My
guess here is some sort or electrolysis due to dissimilar metals,
aided by water. It was ugly!
73,
Paul N1BUG
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|