Kevin,
Good points ! Your system looks great.
I was doing very similar for years.
I have added a final step for sealing the connection I would like to share.
Here in Napa Valley there are many wineries and many water wells. I was
working on a project
for a winery which hired a well drilling and installation company to put
in a new water well for irrigating
one of their vineyards. I was very interested in how they sealed the
electrical connections that were
down in the well under water. They were making up a cable splice that
day and I learned their process.
Their first step with Scotch 88 is not much different than what many of
us do on our RF connection weather proofing.
First they stretch wrap with Scotch 88 electrical tape, then they
stretch wrap with Scotch 130 rubber self bonding splicing
tape, then one final stretch wrap with Scotch 88, then finally they
brush on two coats of ScotchKote 14853 electrical coating. After drying
it is ready to go under water.
Granted this may be an overkill for our weather proofing needs, but I
am anal about weather proofing outside RF connections and have been
using this process myself, with 100% success. The ScotchKote is amazing
stuff.
The downsides:
* It is hard to split and cut open the weather proof coating later on.
It can be done but not as easily as one coated with liquid electrical tape.
* ScotchKote is not cheap. I only use it for this purpose so one can
lasts me quite a while, but it is about $30.00
for one 15 oz can.
Bob
K6UJ
On 5/14/16 12:40 PM, Kevin Stover wrote:
I'm trying to understand why a soldered connector, assuming both types
are weatherproofed properly, is superior for corrosion protection.
Seems to me Sn/Pb solder will corrode just as fast or faster than
anything else in salt air.
I'd say 90% of hams have no clue how to properly weatherproof a
connector. All you have to do is watch which end of the cable they
start wrapping stuff from to tell the connector is going to leak. Such
as starting the tape wrap at the connector and working down. You've
just created 6-8 seams for water to ingress. Start wrapping the tape,
3M 33 or 88, not some cheap crap from Home Depot, down on the coax and
work up. Layers of tape laid like shingles.
I weather "proof" my crimp connectors with glue impregnated heat
shrink, followed by 33/88, followed by coax seal followed by rubber
tape and a final layer of 33/88. All layers rolled half tape width per
course and bottom to top. It ain't pretty but I've never seen a
connector I did have a water problem, even 259's.
On 5/13/2016 2:46 PM, Don W7WLL wrote:
I live on the coast, just a few hundred feet from the Pacific. Most
wind is from the ocean onshore. The cable and sat installers here use
crimped connectors, fast which counts for the installers. HOWEVER,
later, they also spend a lot of time repairing lines and replacing
connectors which corrode via the salt spray and air, specifically the
work that is outdoors for periods of time. Varies of course depending
upon the protection provided. Like Paul, every connector used
outdoors at this house is 4 hole soldered for just the latter reason.
And the coax cover is properly screwed into the connector. Where I
use barrels to interconnect two cables they are covered with flooded
heatshrink and the heatshink ends double sealed with an application
of 3M liquid tape. I learned when I first moved here that while tape
was great for keeping water out most of the time, when I did find dry
connectors, they still were coated almost pure white with salt. So
FAR DIFFERENT from when I lived inland in Portland. There what
corrodes and rusts here in a couple of weeks would not reach that
condx for years and years.
Crimping is great but one has to consider the environment when
choosing, at least that is the case here.
Don W7WLL
-----Original Message----- From: Paul Christensen
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2016 11:21 AM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] PL259 Cobbectors Part 2 - Murray W9EHQ
'I'm perplexed, but not really surprised, that hams still insist on
using
this kind of backwoods engineering when a better way has been
available for
decades. I guess old habits die hard."
If you mean crimped connectors as a "better way," I agree when
they're used
either indoors or when they're adequately weather shielded.
Mechanically,
I've had more crimped connectors break and fail than soldered type when
high, accidental lateral force is exerted. For indoor use, I
exclusively
use crimped type. For outdoors, almost exclusively soldered type.
Paul, W9AC
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