Topband: Coax issues

[Tom W8JI]

> The double female was fine, it was either in the 259 or right after,
> close enough that the connector smelled. No idea where it was made, I
> have a lot of parts from my hayday 30 years ago & back then it was
> pretty much all from here. Some are marked Amphenol, some unmarked.

If you open a connection in a system and apply even a modest amount of 
power, the voltage can be tens of kilovolts.

Damage like you report is not at all uncommon when the load is open.