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| Troubling reading of coax |
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| Faulty PL259 |
Last week I posted about a
wonky SWR reading I was getting and I figured it may be the result of a loose PL259. The issue returned again but not as bad last week. Since moving my Endfed antenna to be able to extend the wire the coax was also moved and now has to be buried. I needed to place the coax in some
PVC conduit and not direct buried underground. It was a nice day and I decided to place the coax in the PVC conduit. While I had the coax disconnected from the Endfed antenna to feed it through the PCV conduit I thought I would connect my Fluke multimeter to the coax. With both ends of the coax disconnected, I placed the multimeter leads across the centre and barrel of the PL259 just to make sure my reading was "OL" and low and behold it was not!
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Outdoor soldering station.
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As I wiggled and moved the PL259 the reading would rise and fall.
Truth be told this PL259 was a plastic moulded factor installed connector that I was not too keen on but for some reason decided to leave it on. Just to confirm it was the PL259 I cut it off the coax and then retested the coax from the centre conductor to braid and the meter read "OL" Fortunately I just installed 120-volt outlets in my shed so it was a matter of running an extension cord from the shed to an outdoor soldering station I set up to solder in a new PL229 connector.
4 comments:
Had my issues with faulty PL connectors Mike. Indeed the plastic moulded ones are not the best. Have you ever considered open line for your antenna? You don't need connectors anymore. The only problem is that it doesn't look nice hanging over the garden. You can't bury it unfortunately and it needs to be as far as possible from (metal) constructions. But the advantage is that it is so much better as coax....73, Bas
I have come to hate regular solder-type PL-Plugs and have now switched to MESSI & PAOLONI COMPRESSION PL259's. They're expensive but OMG they are FAR superior in terms of quality, construction and longevity.
https://www.radioworld.co.uk/generate_product_pdf?product_id=1700558
Regards, Tom, M7MCQ.
Good morning Bas and very nice to hear from you, unfortunately the open line would not work here as I have to bury a section of the line from the home to shed where the Endfed is. Then there is the fun if getting it into the house from outside. The windows here are the crank outward to open not the slide up and down. For now at this location it's coax for me and what ever fun goes along with it.
73 and have a great weekend Bas,
Mike
VE9KK
Good morning Tom hope all is well at your end, I went to the link, and they look great and would give a very nice looking finish as well. It sure does beat soldering the braid only to find out the heat from soldering has caused a short between the centre conductor and braid.
Thanks for the info and link Tom I am for sure going to look into these connectors.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
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