[TowerTalk] StackMatch

[Fred Hopengarten]

From:
Fred Hopengarten  K1VR               781/259-0088
Six Willarch Road
Lincoln, MA 01773-5105
permanent e-mail address:  fhopengarten@mba1972.hbs.edu


Dear Jay:

	As I doubt you've ever received one before, here's a failure
report on my Stack Match.  Short answer:  It was my fault.

	I noticed that the top tribander was intermittently there and not
there. The other two tribanders were connected.  Climbed the tower and
discovered that the female UHF connector (SO-239) for the top tribander
had suffered by having the center pin receptacle pushed back into the
connector so that there was no longer physical  contact between the
PL-259 center pin and the SO-239 center pin.

	The StackMatch uses panel mount SO-239's (one hole, no 4-40
screws) with a gold center receptacle and teflon dielectric.  First
quality.  However, the cable coming DOWN from the top antenna was not
taped to anything within five feet of the female coax jack.  It made a
turn up, for a "drip loop" before going into the coax connector facing
down, and was obviously wiggling around. In time, that wiggling pushed
the center receptacle back UP.  The threads of the outer barrel kept the
male in place and eventually a space developed between the plug and jack.

	Fix:  Replaced SO-239.  Suggested change to manual: Tell users to
tape all coax lines to tower legs near the Stack Match box to prevent
center pin receptacle pushback. Had I done that, no problem would have
been created.

	Other than that, I love my StackMatch.

				

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