There is a device known as "Connector Pliers" too. They have soft jaw inserts
made of a hard rubber ... used by us at TI many moons ago to tighten and loose
Type N connectors on equipment. The rubber jaw inserts serve two purposes -
provides a torque limit and a non-marring/scraping surface to contact the
connector body.
de AA5CT Jim
On Sunday, September 24, 2023, 10:22:11 PM GMT-5, Frank W3LPL
<donovanf@starpower.net> wrote:
Hi Pete,
A PL-259 backed 1/16th of a turn from fully hand tightened
is a very unreliable connector.
Get in the habit of tightening all of your PL-259s just tight enough
so they cannot be loosened by hand and all of your loose PL-259
issues will be forever eliminated.
73
Frank
W3LPL
From: "Pete N4ZR N4ZR" <pete.n4zr@gmail.com>
To: "Frank W3LPL" <donovanf@starpower.net>, "RFI List" <rfi@contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2023 6:01:39 PM
Subject: Re: [RFI] Weird RFI Episode
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" [ mailto:pete.n4zr@gmail.com | <pete.n4zr@gmail.com> ]
To: "RFI List" [ mailto:rfi@contesting.com | <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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