[TowerTalk] PL-239 Going Open?

[Kim Elmore]

I truly appreciate all the responses!

The 9913 is not wet inside -- I checked this the first time it 
happened and it was dry behind the connector that I cut off. I won't 
get any water ingress into my shack because my run is not continuous 
and because all the 9913 connectors up on the tower are shielded from 
the rain. This is good because digging up the 9913 is simply not an 
option -- that would cost many thousands of dollars because we'd have 
to go through the driveway and wrap-around porch. OUCH!

I've had 90 deg elbows fail before (non-Amphenol) but all my barrel 
connectors are Amphenol. I also tested them when each failure 
occurred and each time and they tested fine.

I used good, old-fashioned Kester rosin core Sn/Pb solder, of which I 
should have enough to last the rest of my life. I'll avoid lead-free 
solder to my ;ast breath!

I know that PL-259s aren't waterproof, but decided to not wrap them 
having read that more often than not water gets in anyway and gets 
trapped, never able to evaporate. But, I'll freely admit that this 
might be misguided. I have a fair supply of Scotch 33+ tape and, as 
soon as it warms up (it's 16 deg F as I type), I'll wrap all the connections.

Finally, I didn't positively determine if the failure was in the 
braid connection or the center pin connection in the most recent 
case. The prior failure was about a year ago and, in that instance I 
cut off the connector and found that it was the center pin connection 
that failed, even though I could not move the wire in the connector.

73,

Kim Elmore N5OP