[TowerTalk] RG8X connector issues

Kevin Stover kevin.stover at mediacombb.net
Sun Sep 6 16:48:32 EDT 2015


I remember the first time I installed a connector on 213 in the presence 
of my father.
I grabbed the big side cutters and commenced to it until he saw what I 
was doing.

"NO, NO, NO!!"

He handed me a pair of cutters specifically designed to cut coax cable 
cleanly and flat.
The jaws of these cutters are curved and will cut any size of coax up to 
about an inch in diameter without crushing the cable center conductor 
insulator behind it. As long as they're sharp they make a clean cut all 
the way through the cable in one move.

I have moved to crimping all my coax now and I think the key to a good 
crimp is making sure the center conductor and insulator are not deformed 
and measuring things accurately. I've never been able to pull one off, 
even locking the connector in the vice and pulling on the cable.


On 9/6/2015 2:52 PM, Roger (K8RI) on TT wrote:
> When it comes to cutting the center conductor of 8X, or any of the RG 
> series including LMR 400 and 600, I use a pair of contoured, flush 
> cutting side cutters.they are just large enough to fit over the jacket 
> of LMR-400, with work".  Still, I find that the fine wires of the 8X 
> cable are so easily displaced, that I've made it a standard practice 
> to roll the small center conductor between my thumb and fore finger 
> with a slight pulling motion.  This tightens those fine wires into as 
> small a "round" shape as possible, but as Gerald said, "It's still a 
> tight fit.  The crimp connectors appear to have the tip of the center 
> pin swedged down to where the 8X center conductor just fits.  If I 
> even bump the end of the center conductor, it's back to the thumb and 
> fore finger operation.
>


-- 
R. Kevin Stover
AC0H
ARRL
FISTS #11993
SKCC #215
NAQCC #3441



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