Bill What type of solder did you use? Some ROHS solders are prone to thermal fatigue.
Bruce Bill Hawkins wrote: > Group, > > My GPS time system consists of two Z3801A receivers with two HP cone > antennas. > I built a mast from plastic pipe (6" base to 2" arms) that is about 16 > feet tall. > The antennas are 4 feet apart, each 2' from the center of the mast. The > mast > rises from a deck and is fastened 8' up at the roof line. The mast sits > on a > 3/4" sheet of high density marine plastic fastened to the deck with > stainless > hinges so that the antenna can be folded away from the house and brought > to the > deck railing. The mast was put up in 2003. > > The antenna cables are each half of a 100' coil of RG-8U. Each cable is > about > half in the house and half outdoors. N connectors are soldered to both > ends, so > no adapters are used. The cables leave the house through a waterproof > boat deck > fitting and travel about 5' under the deck to the mast. There's a > service loop > to allow the mast to be lowered, then the cables rise unsupported > through the > mast pipe and branch out to the antennas, which support the weight of > the cables. > > Oh, and the location is Minneapolis, MN, USA. > > The problem is loss of signal during cold weather. Last winter (07-08) I > lost > the signal from one antenna during a cold snap, but it came back a week > or so > later when it warmed up outside. This winter, I lost The North antenna > on Nov > 22 when the low was 15, and it didn't come back. Then the South antenna > went > away on Dec 24 with a -17 low and didn't come back. I'm still running on > holdover. > > I suspect that it's not a good idea to hang 20 feet of RG-8 from an N > connector > without some kind of strain relief, but I don't know why that would be a > cold > weather effect. Perhaps the center conductor shrinks more than cable and > its > braid, and pulls the center pin out. There's definitely an open circuit, > looking > at the receiver end of the cable. There's no alarm from the Z3801. > > Any thoughts, comments or ideas? > > Bill Hawkins > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > > _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.