Amphenols are great...most of the time, but I've had a couple that
slipped past quality control. One had no threads in the connector and
one only had half a center pin, but that's out of many connectors. With
the house and shop stations 160-440, legal limit on most bands, I have
well over 100 connectors in use. Out of the two stations, the 6-pack,
remote switches There are many quality imports as well as there are
many junk imports. Import 90 degree fittings are the ones to be careful
of. Some, but not all have an iffy center conductor around the corner.
I have a few "old" surplus 90s that look like crap. The outsides are
badly discolored, but I use them in QRO with no problems and the AIM
sees no impedance bumps of any concern. They appear to have been unused.
OTOH I avoid ham fest, or swap meet connectors.
So I'm not an "Amphenol only" person, but I do evaluate each batch of
connectors of all brands and inspect every connector before use. I've
gone mainly to LMR 600 as the total for each run is close to 200 feet.
OTOH I do like Davis BuryFlex(TM). As I have three, 200' coils of
LMR600UF (Which is not a good coax for outdoor use) I'll probably use it
on the LM470 crank-up knowing I'll probably need to replace it every 5
or 6 years. OTOH BuryFlex is tough, slippery, and fairly flexible, plus
I just pulled the first 30 feet off a new 500' roll. LMR600UF is
definitely not slippery! That rubber like jacket tends to want to stick
rather than slide. I think I just convinced myself to use the BuryFlex
on the crank-up.<:-)
Now I'm not sure what I'm going to do with those 300 foot coils. I
purchased a thousand feet before I had the LMR400UF fail and then I
found it's not recommended for use out in the elements. <sigh> I used
about 2 100' runs through the conduit from the house to the tower. 75'
of conduit and about 25' through the basement.
73
Roger (K8RI)
On 5/6/2016 Friday 9:36 PM, Don W7WLL wrote:
Got a lot of feedback re the subject connectors and overwhelming the suggestion
was to use Amphenol parts, which I usually do (but I have a lot of inherited
connectors).
I had never paid a lot of attention to connectors for my 8, 213 and similar
coax’s, but I did note that the color of the insulator varied. After reading
specs that the Amphenol used PTFE (all of my Amphenol of a later vintage appear to be
clear insulation), I took a look a some of the right angles I had plus a pile of my
barrels. Of those NOT marked Amphenol, almost all had no readable brand or number
imprinted. I also noticed that the insulation was either white or shades of grey.
I’m not knowledgeable on plastics and am now curious to know what the white or grey material used in
these ‘other brand’ connectors might be (I’m dangerous enough to know a lot of
plastics do come in several colors).
Don T
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73
Roger (K8RI)
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