[Elecraft] Importance of good coaxial jumpers

[David Bunte]

Joe -

Many thanks for sharing your experience.  That is the kind of information
we all either did, do or will need at some point in this great hobby.

A few years ago I started going through all the cables in my shack, and
ended up replacing a number of them that I thought might have been good
enough for some stuff, but not as good as I wanted for the important
stuff.

It was frustrating to find a poorly made cable for which I paid good
money.  It was a different feeling to find a poorly made cable for which I
had to take full blame.  I don't know if it was one that I made before I
knew how to get it "right", or if I was in a hurry, but I know now that we
can learn from such experiences.

Very 73 de Dave - K9FN


On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 11:01 AM, Joe W2KJ <w2kj at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> Howdy Gang:
>
> I find my KX3 to be my "go to" QRP rig these days....my K3 is getting
> dusty (grin).
>
> I was on 15M CW the other day and noticed birdies every 1Khz across the
> band.
>
> I didn't think this was right so I dug deeper.
>
> After eliminating the antenna coax switch and connecting the antenna
> directly to my KX3 lo and behold...no birdies.
>
> Hmmm....what's going on here.
>
> I replaced the coax jumper cable (RG58) from my KX3 to my coax antenna
> switch with a new one and the birdies disappeared!!
>
> I checked the cable (PL259's on each end) and found that the braid was not
> soldered....evidently the only thing making connection from the braid to
> the reducer was a friction fit.
>
> The copper braid looked kinda sparse so I replaced with a know new good
> jumper cable and the problem was solved.
>
> Now I'm gonna check all the coax jumper cables I have in the shack and
> make sure they all have properly installed coax connectors on them.
>
> Lesson learned....now back to 15M!!
>
>                                         73, Joe W2KJ
>                                         I QRP, therefore I am
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