I wish I could tell you I found a "loose" PL-259, Frank - I think the
most I took up on any of them was about a sixteenth of a turn.
Fortunately, at 100 watts, carnage was nil. I have a hunch that
yesterday's torrential rain may have been implicated, because a couple
of the connectors are sheltered but not waterproofed and may have gotten
wet.
73, Pete N4ZR
On 9/24/2023 7:15 PM, Frank W3LPL wrote:
Hi Pete,
As you know, that's exactly why I recommend that PL-259 connectors
always be lightly wrench tightened, just enough to make it not
removable by hand, no more.
Next, check you entire station to verify that all of your PL-259
connectors can not be removed by hand
You were fortunate that no damage was caused by the loose PL-259
When shield integrity is broken, the return circuit must take an
alternative path that can do lots of damage.
73
Frank
W3LPL
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pete N4ZR N4ZR"<pete.n4zr@gmail.com>
To: "RFI List"<rfi@contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2023 3:16:20 PM
Subject: [RFI] Weird RFI Episode
This morning I got up and went on the air in the CQWW RTTY Contest.
Everything had been fine yesterday, but as soon as I made my first
transmission, both of my monitors shut down. Eventually, I found that
the cause was RFI - anything over about 40 watts and blooey (the
computer was fine). Without a lot of excruciating detail, I think the
cause was a hand-tight PL-259 somewhere in my feedline out to my antenna
switch. Initially it looked fjne, and then it started showing me high
SWRs on all bands. I snugged them all down and it went away.
This is a first to me in some 40 years of playing radio and computers.
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