[TowerTalk] Shrink Tubing on Coax & PL-259?

[Roger (K8RI)]

Jon Casamajor wrote:
> Hi Scott,
>
> I've had good and not so good experiences with using shrink tubing on
> PL-259. The good is with the really heavy duty "flooded" variety. It is
> flooded with adhesive that really bonds the tubing to the coax. I found some
> the other day at a local electrical supply house. It is labeled; "PANDUIT
> HST0.8 600V. it is a bright salmon red color and a 6" piece cost me $7.15!
>
>   
Go to the electrical supply houses.  The stuff that is large enough to 
fit over a PL-259, or even LMR-600 connector and shrink to less than a 
1/4", very heavy duty and costs about $10 for a 4' length.
> The bad I had was with the garden variety thin walled stuff that let water
> in and held it in and allowed it to migrate into the coax that I had poorly
> prepared and left one braid hole un soldered...one of those "temporarily
> permanent" cables that ended up permanent and was a bear to track down. Get
> the good stuff if you want the insurance. I will never cut a corner in
> soldering again. :-)
>
>   
One of the reasons I went to crimp connectors.  I've had no problems 
with them. OTOH I had no problems with solder type -259s either.  OTOH I 
can do 4 or 5 crimp connectors in the time it takes me to do one solder 
type.
> I have found what I think is a better solution than heat shrinking. The Self
> bonding Silicon tape is really impressive, easy to use and less expensive.
> Gardner and Bender, GB Electrical products carries a version as do most Ace
> Hardware stores. This is the same tape that SteppIR uses to bond their
> fiberglass elements together. Take a look at this option also.
>
>  
>   
Don't forget the "liquid electrical tape" either.

73

Roger (K8RI)
> Regards,
>
> Jon-K6EL
>
> k6el at comcast.net
>
>  
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
>
>
>  
>
> Message: 1
>
> Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:23:51 -0600
>
> From: "K7ZO \(Scott Tuthill\)" <k7zo at cableone.net>
>
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Shrink Tubing on Coax & PL-259?
>
> To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
>
> Message-ID: <449439462F6E4CBC87F61501C4F177F3 at UpstairsNew>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
>
>       reply-type=original
>
>  
>
> I am about to make a bunch of coax assemblies for the latest antenna 
>
> projects at NK7U. Joe and I were talking about putting shrink tubing over 
>
> the end of the coax and up over the end of the PL-259. We have seen this 
>
> done on some commerically produced coax. Any thoughts on this out there?
>
>  
>
> * Does it make a difference? Is it worth it?
>
> * If so, any recommendations on what Shrink Tubing to use and suppliers of 
>
> it?
>
>  
>
> Thanks for the advice.
>
>  
>
> Scott/K7ZO 
>
>  
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