Connectors are commonly greased with silicon grease on the threads but not on the center connector. This only works when you know that the cable system is a completely sealed system such as waveguide and hardline installations. Coax is not usually a sealed system because the connectors at each end are
not really airtight. If you cannot have a sealed system then the next best thing is to know what is seeping into the cable. Water is the worst choice here as it will attack the metal in the shield and seriously degrade the cable. My solution is to spray everything with ACF-50 and I have yet to find something that reacts poorly to the oil. Corrosion X also seems to work well but I use ACF-50 because I prefer the smell. Boeshield is not acceptable. It is conductive. Sand paper and common lead pencils are not acceptable in the presence of an airplane. Silicon abrasives will encourage cracks to form in aluminum and carbon can have some interesting effects on hardened steel. Keep both away from your airplane. In the rare event that you get good buy on a used SR-71 you should also know that cadmium plated fasteners and tools will cause titanium to crack. When I was much younger and a new ham radio operator I tried very hard to have good antenna systems with low SWR as was just discussed on the newsgroup. Now after thirty years of fixing radio systems every day I can tell you that it makes no difference at all. That advice will seem contrary to most of the opinions so make your own decision on what is best. The most important concern in your antenna system is that the antenna be connected at all. A recent posting on a sailplane group described an antenna inside the tailcone pointing to the rear which gave him only a three mile range. From the opposite coast I correctly diagnosed his problem as a broken connection because my sailplane with the same installation hears over 200 miles with a junky old radio. Which brings us to the second most important thing, noise. The local electrical noise level in your airplane is able to reduce your range by 10 to 100 times. The worst antenna SWR will not drop your range by 1/2 which is nothing compared to your local noise generators. The next most important problem is location. My vor antenna is at the tailcone which gives noticeable problems on stations located in the direction I am going. A single antenna on the belly would perform better in this application. What doesn't matter: Length. Anything within 50% of the correct length will work if it is attached to the radio. Good luck, Bob Condon __________________________________________________________________________ ______ To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________________________ Want to find the best email lists? Check out the Topica 20! http://www.topica.com/topica20
<<attachment: winmail.dat>>
