Re: Topband: substandard quality F double females
Has anyone tried RG-8X PL-259 crimp connectors on RG-6? Carl KM1H - Original Message - From: Pete Smith N4ZR n...@contesting.com To: topband@contesting.com Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2012 3:04 PM Subject: Re: Topband: substandard quality F double females Amphenol F connectors? Whoah! 73, Pete N4ZR Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com. For spots, please go to your favorite ARC V6 or VE7CC DX cluster node. On 12/15/2012 12:35 PM, Jim Brown wrote: On 12/15/2012 6:52 AM, Charles Bibb - K5ZK wrote: Which brands/types are the good ones? Amphenol, Amphenol, and Amphenol. Also, the old MIL-spec stuff that can be found at most hamfests when OTs clean out their basements. The shiny new connectors and adapters sold by vendors at hamfests are junk -- the center conductors are flimsy, often no more than springs. I've had cheap connectors fall apart mechanically, the dielectric of connectors intended for soldering will sometimes melt, and so on. These junk connectors go intermittent, or overheat with power. 73, Jim K9YC ___ Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com ___ Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1430 / Virus Database: 2634/5461 - Release Date: 12/15/12 ___ Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com
Re: Topband: substandard quality F double females
At 08:25 AM 12/15/2012, Craig Clark wrote: I did speak to Lee at Hi-Z yesterday and he warned me about substandard quality F double females. He has had terrible problems with them. Which brands/types are the good ones? Maybe some of mine need replacing... BTW, I don't think I've ever met a substandard double F female or a substandard double D, for that matter. ;-) 73, Charles - K5ZK ___ Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com
Re: Topband: substandard quality F double females
I did speak to Lee at Hi-Z yesterday and he warned me about substandard quality F double females. He has had terrible problems with them. In what respect are they sub-standard? What kind of problems? There is so little that could be defective if the center conductor of the coax is the right size to fit the double-female coupler. Bob VE7BS ___ Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com
Re: Topband: substandard quality F double females
On 12/15/2012 6:52 AM, Charles Bibb - K5ZK wrote: Which brands/types are the good ones? Amphenol, Amphenol, and Amphenol. Also, the old MIL-spec stuff that can be found at most hamfests when OTs clean out their basements. The shiny new connectors and adapters sold by vendors at hamfests are junk -- the center conductors are flimsy, often no more than springs. I've had cheap connectors fall apart mechanically, the dielectric of connectors intended for soldering will sometimes melt, and so on. These junk connectors go intermittent, or overheat with power. 73, Jim K9YC ___ Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com
Topband: substandard quality F double females
I just posted some pictures of my take on F barrel quality on the Hi-Z website. You might have to refresh the page as it is just now posted. YMMV Lee K7TJR OR http://www.hizantennas.com/f_connector_quality.pdf; ___ Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com
Re: Topband: substandard quality F double females
Amphenol F connectors? Whoah! 73, Pete N4ZR Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com. For spots, please go to your favorite ARC V6 or VE7CC DX cluster node. On 12/15/2012 12:35 PM, Jim Brown wrote: On 12/15/2012 6:52 AM, Charles Bibb - K5ZK wrote: Which brands/types are the good ones? Amphenol, Amphenol, and Amphenol. Also, the old MIL-spec stuff that can be found at most hamfests when OTs clean out their basements. The shiny new connectors and adapters sold by vendors at hamfests are junk -- the center conductors are flimsy, often no more than springs. I've had cheap connectors fall apart mechanically, the dielectric of connectors intended for soldering will sometimes melt, and so on. These junk connectors go intermittent, or overheat with power. 73, Jim K9YC ___ Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com ___ Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com
Re: Topband: substandard quality F double females
Which brands/types are the good ones? Maybe some of mine need replacing... BTW, I don't think I've ever met a substandard double F female or a substandard double D, for that matter. ;-) 73, Charles - K5ZK Charles, I'm not sure which brands are bad, but I've been pretty lucky and not run into any. It doesn't surprise me, with Chinese manufacturing quality, that poor connectors are starting to appear. I think there is a risk people might go overboard on connectors based on a few substandard connectors. I started dealing with F connectors back in the 1970's. I was systems engineer at a company that had many dozens or perhaps a hundred or so MATV and CATV systems. With hundreds of thousands of connectors, we could not tolerate even a small fraction of a percent connector failures. All of the connectors we used, and I'm sure this applied throughout the industry, were tin contacts. The last thing we would use was gold, because gold would aggravate something we called fretting corrosion in contact with copper clad steel, tinned, or CCA cables. Tin plating was excellent under dry circuit conditions, like CATV drop feeds, where no significant current flowed through the contact. Tin plated contacts had to be protected from oxidation by a grease. The grease also allows the connectors to be reused over and over without ruining the tin. We found a 100% pure silicon dielectric grease best. We used a product by GE back then, and I use something called automotive tune up grease now. It looks and smells identical. Outside of lightning I have no problems with hundreds of F connections in my system. ALL connectors I have taken apart over the past 40 years have had spring contacts. This includes trunk cable connectors. The spring is a two piece deal that is sort of double V shaped from the side with one long leg. The wire pushes the V point's apart. A good connection requires a pretty good spring force. If you insert a piece of dry center conductor in the contact, you should be able to feel the female grabbing the wire. It can't feel like a zero insertion force connection, or you will have problems. I would never use gold unless it was against gold. Tin is good for tin to tin, tin to silver, and tin to copper. I know of CATV systems that installed gold plated connectors and had to go out and remove them. I think Comcast got into that once. Besides that, some gold connectors are not even real gold. They are just gold colored crap. My suggestion is to ask advice from and use what the CATV industry uses and has used for years. I know everyone thinks gold is magic, but it can be a real headache even in cases where it really is gold. The single most important thing in any connection is to NOT let a stray stand get loose and short the connector, to prep the ends properly including folding or not folding the shield as required by the cable and connector, and to lube the connector with something to keep air and moisture out. I have many hundreds of F's in my system, and I'm not particularly choosey about picking certain brands of females so long as they pass the insertion force and pull test (they have to have a definite grabbing friction when dry) and are tinned center contacts. The last thing you will find around here are gold connectors, unless they mate to another gold contact. I also ALWAYS lube the connector with silicon dielectric compound. 73 Tom ___ Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com
Re: Topband: substandard quality F double females
Oh really? What about CCS against gold with silicone dielectric compound to seal out moisture, Tom? I haven't used those gold-plated connectors yet. Maybe I should return them for a refund? 73, Mike www.w0btu.com On Sat, Dec 15, 2012 at 8:37 PM, Tom W8JI w...@w8ji.com wrote: The last thing we would use was gold, because gold would aggravate something we called fretting corrosion in contact with copper clad steel, tinned, or CCA cables. ... I would never use gold unless it was against gold. Tin is good for tin to tin, tin to silver, and tin to copper. I know of CATV systems that installed gold plated connectors and had to go out and remove them. ___ Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com
Re: Topband: substandard quality F double females
On 12/15/2012 12:04 PM, Pete Smith N4ZR wrote: Amphenol F connectors? Whoah! Nuts. I didn't read carefully enough. Again. Thanks Pete. I was thinking UHF. 73, Jim K9YC ___ Topband reflector - topband@contesting.com
