Hi Steve, the thing that really gets my goat about connector failures, is
when they haven't been touched or jostled in any way.  The connection is
perfectly fine one minute, and the next minute the connection has failed
totally on its own.  It is like the damn things have a mind of their own,
Hi.

73


Alan R. Downing
Phoenix, AZ


-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Steve Forst
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2014 6:53 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Epidemic of connector failures

Following Alan's recent experience, I'm not sure if 2 failures equals an 
epidemic, but  even the Black Death started with the first 2 victims.

Thought I'd get on 160 last night  and see if any DX in the contest.  My 
low band dipole was dead as a doornail on 160, 80, and 40 meters. 
Thought maybe it had come down in the snow and wind of Wednesday night. 
  In the back yard I found the coax going up  into the sky as usual. 
Barring any failure of the laws of gravity I figured the antenna was 
still up there.

Back in the shack, I found the connector on the cable from the dipole 
going into the 4 position coax switch was intermittent.  It took a bit 
of a jiggle, but  it was obvious in the receiver.  This was a soldered 
connector done by the Wire Man about 10 years ago when I re-cabled the 
station with Davis Bury-flex.    Goes to show that anything can fail, 
even the least likely suspect.

Just went out this morning into the coax entry box, where  all antenna 
cables enter, go to lightening protectors, and  then coax runs through 
the wall and to the shack.    I switched the coax from the 30 meter 
ground plane to the dipole and all is well.    I will have to redo that 
connector, but no real rush.

73, Steve KW3A