Topband: Coax issues

[ZR]

Chomp chomp, burp.

Some critters travel under the snow and vegetation for their vitamins.

Was that double female or burnt PL-259 an import? The coax dielectric 
shouldnt make any difference and maybe it wasnt sealed properly and water 
got in. Ive blown import junk enough times in the past to get rid of them 
all.

Carl
KM1H


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Smith" <Gary at ka1j.com>
To: <Topband at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: Topband: Coax issues


> Resolution: Eat more rabbit.
>
> Thanks again for the pointer to the 259B being an answer. I now see
> it will do more than I knew, I didn't know about the advanced mode.
>
> So... Last night I disconnected the coax in to the distal coax
> switch, it was not connected in the shack but I read a dead short
> with the fluke. This morning I went out and disconnected the coax so
> I could make a reading on both ends of the coax to see how well they
> jived. Found the instigator of the problem & that damned rabbit
> chewed mostly through the control cable to the coax switch. He must
> have bit into the voltage & that stopped him.
>
> However, he had chewed through the cable and had severed 3-4 wires of
> the 6 involved in switching and this disconnected the coax from the
> antenna. I was trying for 3B9/OE4AAC on Rodriguez & on 17 & using the
> amp. Amazingly the amp didn't have any issue but that energy had to
> go somewhere. I reattached the control wires at the switch, went back
> to the shack and read 515 feet to fault and that multiplied by the VF
> of .66 = 334 feet.
>
> Not knowing the exact footage of the coax, I went to the distal end
> and remeasured from there and kept getting different distances but
> one thing was for sure, it was easier getting the zero readings at
> the shack end. I cut off the connector & there still was a dead short
> in the coax so I cut away the roll of coax I used for a choke
> thinking it would be found there but no. I started the long grind of
> pulling up the coax from under the leaves & snow & came to something
> I'd forgotten about, I had run short of coax and needed to use a
> female/female jumper to add a length of coax to reach the switch box.
> I undid the sealant & could smell the burn. The end going to the
> house was undamaged but the other end had fried at the connector. I'd
> forgotten that the last part was foam coax & my long run used the
> hard plastic dielectric; it was the foam that melted & shorted.
>
> All's well now with the coax and antennas, all read just where they
> should and I now have a vial of that Coyote urine under the switch to
> deter any more of those wascally wabbits.
>
> Thanks again for the replies.
>
> Gary
> KA1J
>
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