[TowerTalk] PL-259 Going Open?

[W5CPT]

I experienced something similar once when I unknowably used Lead-Free solder on a half dozen connectors.  I thought it flowed poorly when I put the connectors on and less than 6 months later had a connector FALL OFF in my hand.  I had an odd SWR problem and went to the tower to check the connectors on the Coax Switch and pulled the connector right off the cable.  It appeared as if the solder never entered the shield or the center conductor.  The cable was weathered where the air had gotten to it.  I cut them all back, re-soldered with real lead solder (getting harder and harder to find) and all has been well since.

Clint - W5CPT


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Kim Elmore 
  To: towertalk at contesting.com 
  Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2008 7:43 PM
  Subject: [TowerTalk] PL-259 Going Open?


  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

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