[TowerTalk] Elbow connectors

[Tim Totten, N4GN]

On Mon, 5 Mar 2001 w9re@worldnet.att.net wrote:

> Murphy hit me on Friday night with symptoms of a relay in the amp
> about to go (had that happen once before).  I had to keep tripping the
> vox to copy weak signals.  It came and went and finally on Sunday I
> think I figured it out to be a bad connection or connector (right
> angle) on the back of the amp.  Sometimes it created hash on all
> signals.

I remember a very similar problem at VS6WO a few years ago.  We had all
kinds of weird intermittent problems until we replaced a 90-degree elbow
connector.  When we dissected it with a hacksaw, we noticed the center
conductor was a VERY thin (light guage) spring.  It looked like the
filament from a cheap light bulb.  Steve said he had bought that generic
connector in some local electronics market.

The lesson I took away from that experience is to spend the few extra
pennies for quality connectors, especially for any elbows.

73,

Tim Totten, n4gn@n4gn.com
http://www.n4gn.com


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