Don't take my word for it, it's a shunned practice throughout the amateur community, because it results in shitty connections that either fail or have wild impedance swings. Nothing else changed except moving the thing higher up. It's your shoddy connector installation that is to blame, almost guaranteed.<br>
<br>"One thing that you might consider, however, is that by taking the
assembly approach you have, you have completely violated the design
intent of the mechanical interface of the PL259, which is that the
internal screw threads in the back end of the connector body are
intended to tightly screw on to the jacket material (PVC, polyethylene,
etc) of the coaxial cable, assuring a very strong mechanical connection
that cannot be broken by linear force. The only way to "pull off" a
properly installed PL259, even before it's soldered at all, is to
unscrew it. (And, of course, any weatherproofing designed into the connector is
lost as well, since you've left the four body solder holes empty. And,
of course, any impedance integrity provided by the connector design is
also lost, since you're terminating the center conductor and the outer
conductor in two different locations, in a non-coaxial manner.)
"<br><br>"And the thought of folding back the shield brings shudders to these old
bones. It was in fact, this very practice which drove me to write the
article in the first place.
"<br><br>This is not CB where an extra inch down the connector for the shield does not matter, at VHF frequencies it does. The only time you should be folding the shield back is when you are using a UG-175/6 reducer, as that's the way it's designed to be used.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 1:29 PM, Alan Fletcher <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:proaudio5@hotmail.com">proaudio5@hotmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div>
Have to agree to disagree here, Dave. It's such a tight interference fit, that I literally had pain in my wrist from holding the cable as I tightened them down with a pair of needle-nosed Vise Grips. <br><br>That's not to say soldering the braid is a bad idea, it certainly couldn't hurt. I just don't think it's entirely necessary. <br>
<br>I'm toying with the idea of taking down the vertical completely and putting the top loop at the top of the mast. Not only will that reduce the wind load on my flimsy mounts, but it will also allow me more height... We'll see what happens.<br>
<br><hr>Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 09:57:51 -0400<br>From: <a href="mailto:kb1fsy@vhfwiki.com" target="_blank">kb1fsy@vhfwiki.com</a><br>To: <a href="mailto:john.foege@gmail.com" target="_blank">john.foege@gmail.com</a>; <a href="mailto:450@lists.vhfwiki.com" target="_blank">450@lists.vhfwiki.com</a><div class="im">
<br>Subject: Re: [450] Loops are finally up to height... (pics)<br><br>Also, just twisting on the connectors and soldering the center pin is not adequate at VHF frequencies, you need to actually put the connector on properly.<br>
<br><div>On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 12:45 AM, <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:john.foege@gmail.com" target="_blank">john.foege@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="padding-left: 1ex;">Use DSD to seal your connectors..heh<br>
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T<br>
<br>
-----Original Message-----<br>
From: "Bob" <<a href="mailto:N1UJS@toast.net" target="_blank">N1UJS@toast.net</a>><br>
<br>
Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 00:44:40<br>
To: 144.450 Mailing List<<a href="mailto:450@lists.vhfwiki.com" target="_blank">450@lists.vhfwiki.com</a>><br>
Subject: Re: [450] Loops are finally up to height... (pics)<br>
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