[TowerTalk] PL-259 Going Open?

[Kim Elmore]

I'm not sure Towertalk is the right forum, but here goes:

I'm using PL-259s outside to connect transmission lines (Belden 9913) 
that run up the tower to my antennas to the underground lines that 
run to the shack.  Obviously, the PL-259s are connected through a 
barrel connector (which has a number designation I've forgotten). 
Everything is Amphenol and I've soldered more PL-250s than I can 
count, all with an American Beauty 100 W iron.

Twice I have experienced one of the PL-259s becoming open. These have 
been outside for about two years and I live in Oklahoma, so while we 
see about 35" per yrar of rain, it tends to come in good sized 
amounts with extended dry periods in between. Disconnecting and 
reconnection doesn't affect the problem and bending around the 
transmission line has no effect: I have to actually re-solder the connectors.

This has happened only to my HF transmission lines: there's no 
problem (so far) with my VHF/UHF lines. There is no warning and no 
prior symptoms. Using a tuner, I can sometimes of feed a little power 
to the system and see things change with 100 W power applied but the 
match is unstable and nothing ever becomes normal. The connectors are 
exposed and are not sealed with any sort of tape or flooded shrink 
tubing. When I look at them, the solder still looks good, but to 
reestablish connectivity I must re-solder them.

I'm currently planning to replace connectors exposed to weather with 
N-connectors, but I've never seen this before, even though I've had 
connectors outside before that have lasted for many years with no 
problems. Has anybody else experienced this?

Kim Elmore, N5OP