[TowerTalk] Protecting relay box and conx

[john at kk9a.com]

I use Hoffman Enclosures for all of my outdoor coax relays. This gives easy
access to the relays and connections.  A box can be mounted on a post next
to the tower if tower mounting is impractical.

I have a lot of N connectors in my system so I do not want to start the N
connector trash talk.  That said, you already have DIN connectors so why are
you making DIN to N adaptors when DIN connectors are available for almost
any cable.

John KK9A (W4AAA in this weekend's ARRL RTTY RoundUp)



Jim Miller jim at jtmiller.com 

Each of those feeds is a type N on a 7/8" hard-line connected by a short
flexible jumper to the relay box.

The DXE box is all SO-239 so the jumpers accomplish the transition from N
to PL259 to mate.
The jumpers also act as mechanical buffers since connecting the hard-line
to the box even if the connectors were of the same type would be a
mechanical nightmare.

The connectors at the box are pretty well shielded from direct rain fall
but obviously could get water blown on to them. I'm at a very windy
location.

The connectors to the feed lines are often in need of
disconnection/reconnection as the tower is raised and lowered. This makes
the usual taping rather impractical.

The trunk back to the house is 1-5/8 hard-line with a 7-16 DIN with a
DIN-to-N adapter then a flexible jumper as the others.

What would you suggest for protecting all this stuff? A big NEMA box is a
bit impractical at this location. It would make it difficult to remove the
tower feeds when the tower needs to be lowered. The tower is an AB-621 so
mounting a NEMA on the "rocket launcher" base is out.

For now I'm just going to put a raincoat over it all: a large trash bag
with drawstrings to be replaced periodically.

I'm also considering putting a large squarish trash can inverted over it.

Suggestions welcome.

73

jim ab3cv