[TowerTalk] In Search of 2db

[Pete Smith]

At 01:14 PM 5/26/00 -0400, Jim Cutler wrote:
>
>Fred, That's a great post and a great question. I don't have the answer per
>se, but KC1XX did help me with exactly this. You mention in your post how
>good his construction is. I thought I made quality jumpers, but Matt laughed
>and after telling me that's how little girls made them, he showed me the
>right way. He enlarges the 3 solder drip holes in the pl259 with a tool we
>could only find at Home Depot, a slightly better cup-shaped hole holds the
>solder better and he was right. I do this all the time and for some reason
>it just works faster and better when you're filling the holes with solder.
>He also coats the coax braid with solder and a coat of flux, puts the pl-259
>over it, and then heats the connector with a very large, very hot soldering
>wand (got it at McKitrick in Lowell). You just heat it long enough to make
>the flux do it's job so you don't melt the coax. The result is a killer
>connection. You may do this already. Just those little changes, but what a
>difference. Matt's point to me was that a mediocre patch cord won't kill
>you, but it's the combination of all the lossy mediocre patch cords and
>devices that cumulatively rob you of db.

Hi Fred -- I recently rejumpered my station -- much simpler than yours --
using double-shielded super RG8X from The Wireman, which is very easy to
solder to.  I was appalled at some of the jumpers I removed.  Did it make
even .1 dB difference?  I don't know, but I can also now be reasonably sure
that my jumpers aren't the root of any problems in the station.  


73, Pete Smith N4ZR
n4zr@contesting.com 



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