Golly Ron... I don't know what to say... You are obviously intelligent,
educated, and you are polite... However, your beliefs on lubricants, greases,
and antioxidants border upon medieval alchemy...
I will try to be brief here...
First, you are correct that you would not use Penetrox, et.al, to flood a
PL259 for the purpose of excluding water penetration... Why?.. Because they
contain powdered metals (which are there for the express purpose of becoming
the sacrificial anode in the event that moisture does penetrate the joint)...
Thus, the presence of the powdered metal would invite rf flashover and carbon
tracking... However, if you stick your vom leads into a blob of penetrox you
will measure an open circuit (i.e. extremely low conductance)... Why?...
Because the non compressed metal fines do not form a continuous filament of
metal from one point in the blob, to another...
Next, you are wrong that introducing a clinging petroleum product into a joint
means loss of contact between the metals... It does not... I invite you to
grab two pieces of any clean metals and clamp them firmly together, and then
measure the resistance between them... Then coat the contact surfaces with the
heaviest grease that you can lay your hands on, reclamp and remeasure... There
will be no difference!....
Thirdly, introducing Penetrox, grease, or anything else into an antenna joint
does not affect rf flow, as rf flow is primarily a surface phenomenon, flowing
over the outside of the joint, not diving inbetween the tubes for three or
four inches and somehow being blocked by the presence of the grease...
We will leave the discussion of synthetics versus petroleums for another
day...
Cheers ... Denny
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