Reliable, cheap, readily available, and works for properly installed UHF
connectors. I use Copper split nuts to attach antennas, feed lines,
chokes, and end insulators. Coat them with Vaseline and they will stay
pristine under all the dirt that collects. We are only a few miles from
farming country so the dust really builds up on grease. When I lived on
the farm the build up was extreme. Sometimes the old is still the best
way.
OTOH the flooded, industrial heat shrink adds a great deal of strength.
It's also likely the most difficult to remove. OTOH if you lose the end
of the tape it can be a royal PITA to remove. I replaced a splice in the
coax from the AV640 to the new run of BuryFlex(TM) (which we put in last
spring), today. I'd been trying to get around to do that all summer.
I'm very good at procrastinating and the Arthritis has improved that
ability!
With only one hand working well, I had to enlist the aid of my wife
(N8JBW) to make the change. We don't really work well together on
mechanical things.
The 20/5.6 mm MMM flooded heat shrink tubing wall is quite thick when
shrunk to RG-8 size cables. It's also very tough! It takes a lot of
repeated little short cuts to split it down to the connectors and coax
jacket while taking care not to cut into the coax jacket. That requires
a sharp pointed box cutter blade.
We taped the splice to be removed to the mast on which the vertical
is mounted. Then once split we used a pair of regular pliers to break
that MMM loose from the connectors and coax. It was a whole lot easier
and faster with both hands working and just me. :-(The end of the
BuryFlex had a UHF (PL259) crimp connector already installed that had
been taped to keep the weather out, which is what reminded me of losing
the tape end. It probably would have been easier had I heated the old
heat shrink first even though it was near 80F outside. Near 80 on the
8th of October in Michigan! When I first became a ham in 61 we would
have been having freezing temps at night with 8 to 10 inches of snow
only a week to 10 days away. We haven't even had a frost warning yet
this fall.
73,
Roger (K8RI)
On 10/8/2017 Sunday 12:51 PM, Tom Osborne wrote:
One thing that has always worked for me is Vaseline. A friend who worked
for the telephone company said they used it to cover exposed connections.
I tried some on some antennas and found that after a couple of years, I
just wiped it off with a rag and the connections underneath were as clean
as the day I put the antenna up. A lot easier to clean than glue and
tape.
I had one beam with a PL-259 connection and it was also nice and clean when
I wiped it off. 73
Tom W7WHY
On Sat, Oct 7, 2017 at 11:39 PM, Roger (K8RI) on TT <
K8RI-on-TowerTalk@tm.net> wrote:
One of the favorites (although I don't know by what percent) was wrapping
the first layer with the sticky side out. It does leave the connectors nice
and clean. OTOH there was a complaint about the hot melt glue from flooded
heat shrink not adhering. IOW, to diametrically opposed approaches.
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73
Roger (K8RI)
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