[Elecraft] K3 loss of rx signal

[Guy Olinger K2AV]

Outdoors, PL259 tightened by hand in cool/cold weather will come loose
in warm weather. This is particularly vexing when the connection is up
on a tower out on a boom to a balun on the driven element.

Pliers plus maxi-sealing against the weather is the rule for these.

The teeth can be misaligned with stiff coax where you have to twist
the coax a bit to get the teeth.

Then there are the female UHF connections where there are only FOUR
notches on the female connection for the two teeth on the male
connector. That's very easy to get wrong.

73, Guy K2AV

On Mon, Apr 3, 2017 at 10:58 AM, Phil Hystad <phystad at mac.com> wrote:
> Don,
>
> In my experience, PL-259s do not get tightened properly when the little teeth on the end do not engage properly.  So, when I tighten PL-259s, I make sure that the teeth fit in together properly and this always gives a snug fit.  Note: I am not sure if these are called teeth or not.
>
> In almost 60 years of dealing with PL-259s the only time I needed pliers was to undo the PL-259 connector that I had on my truck that had sealant on it (it was very much in the weather) and stuck besides.
>
> Then again, I don’t ever remember having any loose connection problems with PL-259s either.
>
> 73, phil, K7PEH
>
>
>> On Apr 3, 2017, at 7:42 AM, Don Wilhelm <donwilh at embarqmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Phil,
>>
>> PL-259s depend on tightness to make a good connection to the shield.
>> This is an often overlooked cause of problems.
>> After hand tightening, snug them up just a bit more with pliers if you want them to be reliable.
>>
>> 73,
>> Don W3FPR
>>
>> On 4/3/2017 10:19 AM, Phil Hystad wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Apr 3, 2017, at 5:25 AM, Nr4c <nr4c at widomaker.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Don't overlook the obvious.  Check to make sure the connectors are all very tight. "Hand snug" is not good enough!
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>> ...bc nr4c
>>>
>>> What do you mean “Hand Snug” is not good enough?
>
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