Roger, soft and flexible silicone rubber insulated HV wire which is half the
diameter of RG8's dielectric and will withstand 20kV safely is readily
available and lasts decades without service or deterioration.
One very nice feature of the age-old Millen connectors is that the center
pin can rotate independently of the outer shell (by design), and this
provides considerable strain relief to the system.
MHV connectors are not expensive but the cables for their use can be, and
they do not feature the rotating contact. RG58/RG59 fits that connector
size but have low DWV ratings. I wouldn't trust polyethylene with much
voltage after soldering anything to its center conductor. Teflon cable is
fine for MHV connectors, but is expensive and not very flexible. I prefer
the ultraflexible multistranded silicone rubber HV cable...which works great
with the Millen connectors!
WB2WIK/6
"Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem." --
Henry Kissinger
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Roger D. Johnson [SMTP:n1rj@pivot.net]
> Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 4:31 PM
> To: amps@contesting.com
> Subject: [AMPS] HV connectors
>
>
> I, frankly, get a little nervous whenever I disconnect the Millen
> high voltage connector on the back of my Drake L7. The wire to it
> looks like the center of RG-8 so there's plenty of insulation. Or
> is there? Doesn't insulation fail sometimes? I'd feel much better
> having the HV inside a shielded cable where an arc to ground only
> goes to the shield....not through my body. There is a type of HV
> connector available called the MHV. It looks like a BNC but will
> not mate with a BNC. It's available for all common cables and is
> rated for 5kv. It's reasonably priced too. Maybe more than a Millen
> setup but not much more and the security is worth it to me. They
> are available through any large distributor such as Pasternak.
>
> 73, Roger
>
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