[TowerTalk] Long Term Connector Reliability

[NN4TT Dave Clausen]

After almost 40 years of doing connectors both in amateur and commercial
service, the absolute go to for me has been a combination of Scotch 17 or
33 electrical tape and the moldable mastic sealer. One layer of tape
wrapped from the bottom to the top if vertical so the seams overlap in a
manner so the water runs over the seam and not into it, then a layer of
mastic across that making sure to incorporate over the tape onto the coax
where you started wrapping on either side Get that firm and sealed very
well and then another layer of tape from the bottom up over that wrapping
tightly. That will compress the mastic into the seams of the tape on the
bottom. I've only seen a couple of times water has intruded into that in
hundreds of connectors that I've done of all types. The other benefit, is
you can get into it fairly easily if you need to take it apart with a razor
knife since the mastic is not worked into the joints of the connector,
that's what the first layer of tape is for. If you want extra added
protection, go with ScotchKote. Just brush that on to the outside of the
last layer of electrical tape. I don't see ScotchKote used much anymore but
almost every commercial installation that goes up these days is using the
combination I described above. There was a time where they were using cold
shrink in commercial, especially in the cellular industry but I haven't
seen that in a while now but I don't work around cellular anymore. All the
two-way lately is doing the tape -mastic - tape routine.

DX Engineering is selling a prepackaged version of this, Vapor Wrap and
Scotch 33 in one and Scotch 88 in another. Pricey but extremely effective
when you install it correctly.

73
Dave
NN4TT

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