As written previously, Patriotman was up to the redoubt last week and we played with his new
Xiego G90 transceiver. Once he got home he hooked it up to his G5RV inverted "V" antenna. Well he could get out but his RX/TX was around 4/8. His signal was very weak. Readable but weak.
He immediately thought his antenna was at fault as we knew his radio worked great up at the redoubt. I suggested that before he threw his antenna under the bus to check the connection of the coax between his antenna and the coax. Well he checked it out and sure enough the connection was very corroded.
Last night MrsMac and I was at one of the ham clubs we belong too. I was chatting with a ham who was a retired Navy Signals guy and I told him about Patriotsman experience. He asked me a few questions like,
> Length of run of the coax,
> Where does my friend live in relation to the ocean,
> Type of antenna,
> Whether the connection was sealed via self-amalgamating tape,
> Etc.
His comments were,
- Coax connections in the weather always corrode over time.
- Coax connections in the weather close to the ocean always corrode faster than inland.
- Make sure your friend takes a rat-tail file (Use a chainsaw sharpening file) just a hair larger than the antenna
connection and make sure you clean up the female connection for the male portion of the PL 259 coax
connection. Then clean it out as best you can with a pipe cleaner.
- On a low humidity day,
* Apply a small amount dielectric grease to both fittings,
* Heat for both fittings for 5-minutes or so with a hair dryer to help drive out any last bit of moisture,
* Make the connection and wrap with the self-amalgamating tape.
- Last, if possible, keep the connection off the ground.
I am posting this here so others might learn from this experience.
What other suggestions do
"you" have?
