[TowerTalk] Cleaning/referb of antennas

[K7GCO@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/23/01 9:18:38 PM Pacific Daylight Time, n0tt1@juno.com 
writes:

<< 
 Hi TT ers
 
 Back in the late 50's, my dad and I had a ground plane antenna on the
 roof of our house.  We used silicone in the coax connector to
 keep water out...it MAY have been suggested in the instructions
 to do that.  Maybe a year later, the connector shorted out and
 blamed the trouble on lightning, etc.
 
 Sometime later, I installed commercial mobile radios for a living. 
 It was common practice in the shop to apply silicone "grease" to the
 multi- pinned "Jones" plug pins because they were then easy to
 insert/remove.
 About 6 months later the customer would come back with a problem...
 blown fuse.  Troubleshot and found a DEAD SHORT in the "Jones"
 connector between battery and ground.  That happen on at least
 two occasions that I know of.....THEN, several years later, I installed
 a Bakelite connector on my truck and again used silicone...about
 6 months later a fuse blew.  Sure enough the connector shorted...
 a dead short.
 
 It was then that I realized that the silicone had to be chemically
 reacting
 with the Bakelite to cause the short.
 
 Some insulating material may be immune to silicone, but IMHO don't
 use silicone IN a coax connector or any other connector, especially
 the mica-filled Bakelite type. 
 
 73,
 Charlie, N0TT
 
 > Now I never ever found anything better than Silicone grease to stop 
 > corrosion 
 > between SS hardware like clamps, bolts and aluminum when properly 
 > applied- -2 
 > very very dissimilar metals.  Vaseline can be hosed off.  Silicone 
 > grease 
 > sticks so well that any surface even with the silicone grease wiped 
 > off will 
 > not hold paint.  K7gco
  >>
Charlie:  Interesting findings.  I will look into the various kinds of 
Silicone grease.  I will run a test of Silicone grease in a PL-259/SO-239 
connectors and give it the RF test with a linear.  I have ways of sealing 
them from water getting in and have used Silicone grease on the threads for 
years. k7gco

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