Taping/Tie Wraps/PL 259s and the amazing Goo

[BK1ZX70SFL at aol.com]

>From the Ultraviolet capital of the World.....and home to the next great up
and coming contest club....

Greetings and welcome to another edition of:

"Don't buy the cheap stuff!"

Sponsored in part by The Florida Contest Group...determined to put UV in its
place.

When W1CW and W1YL moved to the Tampa area after hurricane Andrew we
colaborated to build a competitive contest/DX station.  At first, every flea
market was a buying opportunity for all those things you need when your
putting up two towers and a bunch of monobanders.

In addition to learning that all black tie wraps are NOT UV resistant time
has taught that ALL tie wraps are NOT UV RESISTANT!  Yesterday I was on the
tower and I saw more and more tie wraps crumble....after the first six months
I noticed that just bumping into some of them was enough to make them
snap...this is when I learned "some tie wraps are not UV resistant"....."the
UV ones are black"........add six months and lesson two in Tie Wraps
101....."oh no, just because tie wraps are black doesn't make them UV
resistant".......and a year later (now about a year ago)...."shoot even those
'pensive UV resistant ones aint worth xxxx". 

In Florida where UV is high, anything made of any type of plastic probably
will fail. Did you know the highest UV strengths in the world...are in the
Florida Keys, just about Key Largo or so. But I digress.

After two years I have decided the place for tie wraps is in the shack!

"got your deal right here, special Ham prices right here....hot dogs,
popcorn, Black tape 10 rolls for 5 bucks"

Don't do it, man....cheap tape is cheap tape. I respect AA1K and VE1ZZ but
this is one thing I know! It is more expensive to buy Scotch brand produicts
but the ability to forget about a problem at a junction because you know it
was done right is worth every penny of it. When troubleshooting a bad
antenna, and you know you used the cheap stuff...you invariably have more
possible places where the problem may lie.  Why not do it right and save
yourself the heartache....and then having to retape the cheap taped
connection......take your time up front and spend your time making QSOs or
enjoying quality time with your family. It is a better approach than being in
a XXitty mood cuz you have spent the past few hours untaping and retaping
connections you could have simply could have known were good, rather than
known could have been bad.

"right here we got em, those PL259's you have been lookin' for 10 for 8
bucks....best price you'll find all weekend"....uh oh, like my boss always
says - beware of those selling price.  In the past few years I have seen what
seems to be a lifetime's worth of failures of connectors...sometime due to
the tape above not doing its job....sometimes due to mechanical failure of a
PL259....huh, mechanical failure? Yup....cheapo PL259s are made from very
thin metal...when tightening one, the base of the threaded shell "popped" off
and then there was a ring of metal around the coax and a threaded shell which
had no reason to stay on top of the fitting! 

These are just a coupla types of failures....like the tape, don't buy it
'cause it is cheap....when that cheap fitting ends up being the one at 130
feet and your are praying there won't be too much voltage drop in 150 feet of
extension cord, at that point you will ask yourself why you bought the cheap
connectors...or you may tell yourself something....in language usually
reserved for your boss at work!

My latest experimentation has been with a product from the 3M Scotch
folks....Scotchkote.  For years I have been hearing guys say how this is the
only way to guy to get tight taped connections. This amazing Goo comes in a
tin can kinda like rubber cement....but the fumes are more powerful, dude.
There is a brush applicator on the lid and you apply this stuff on top of
your taped connections. It bonds with the tape and creates a continuous
seal...over those bumps in the tape...and what I like most...over that prone
to become loose end.  While I have only been using this stuff for less than a
year it looks like it will stand up great....and others have reported using
this on taped up connections and coming back many years later unwrapping the
tape and finding shiny PL259's looking like they were straight out of the
Amphenol wrapper.  It is available here in Florida in the chains like Home
Depot, not just the electrical supply houses...translation: you can buy it on
weekends! I gather it is prone to UV breakdown and may need a top coat or
covering but it sure does make one slick seamless seal.

Sorry for the lengthy response - but it is a cummulation of knowledge
garnerred from the contest reflector and the combined 100+ plus years of
licensed hamming in my family...my biggest recommendation to you is to do two
things - one stay here on the reflector and learn as much as possible, and
two:

PLEASE WORK ME IN THE CW SWEEPSTAKES THIS NOVEMEBER! 

73

GL,   Jim K1ZX     bk1zx70sfl at aol.com

>From Larry Crim <wz4f at iquest.com>  Sun Mar 17 22:20:05 1996
From: Larry Crim <wz4f at iquest.com> (Larry Crim)
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 16:20:05 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Rotators for 2 stacked 15/20m yagis / [YAESU COMMENT]
Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960317161715.14308A-100000 at vespucci.iquest.com>



Yaesu is aware of their mast clamp problems.  I, also, broke the ear off 
one of my clamps, and they replaced it at no charge even though it was 
out of warranty.  Despite their design flaws, at least they're good 
sports!
73,
Larry
WZ4F

On Sun, 17 Mar 1996, Victor Vernon Burns wrote:

> =====================================================================
> K7LXC
> 
>   .  cast aluminium mast clamps of YAESU rotators don't hold very
>      well and will break under stress
> 
> KC2X
> 
>   .  likes his G2700SDX, but..
>   .  broke 2 of the mast clamps
> =====================================================================
> 
> Yaesu is *very* explicit about how to assemble this bracket.  We have had no problems with and 85# double walled 15' Mast, a TH-7DX 85# and a 2 Element 40M 65# with no thrust bearing, and it will turn it in very heavy wind no problems.
> 
> Back to the clamp, it is a strange set-up but I was very carefull to follow there directions in centering and tightening.  Specifically, tightening is just barely past finger tight and I can well imagine that some guys torqued the $@%^%#$ out of the bracket.
> 
> Victor KI6IM
>