Topband: Failed bulkhead connector

[WW3S]

Had a great start to the 160 contest, about 90 qsos the first hour, running about 1200 w to my inverted L.....took a short break to grab a bite to eat, first transmission after that tripped the swr protection in the amp....long story short, after attempting to fix it in the dark, Saturday morning I found the bulkhead connector on my radial plate failed....even though reception was just fine, I couldn’t transmit, I think it failed open...replacing the connector brought everything back to normal.....it may have been a cheap connector , bought a few at Dayton ( won’t make that mistake again).....what is it that causes them to fail? The insulation ? 

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