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Re: [TowerTalk] Sealing Coax Connections

To: towertalk <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Sealing Coax Connections
From: Steve Maki <lists@oakcom.org>
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2025 23:43:12 -0400
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
In any case, one must use a "courtesy" wrap under the nuclear stuff to avoid loud swearing in the future.

Scotch 33 or 88 works OK for that, but the best courtesy wrap is a layer of silicone tape.

-Steve K8LX

On 04/19/25 4:29 PM, Steve Jones wrote:
Interesting...I use the exact opposite procedure.  I first wrap the
connector with Scotch 88, with a little fold at the end for easy unwrapping.
Then cover everything with the self-fusing Coax Seal.  If I need to get to
the connector,  I scrape the sticky stuff away from the little fold, then
unwrap everything off to reveal a shiny clean connector.
73,
Steve
N6SJ


-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk<towertalk-bounces@contesting.com> On Behalf Of Jim Brown
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2025 10:56 PM
To:towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Sealing Coax Connections

On 4/18/2025 3:12 PM, Brian Beezley wrote:
Has anyone tried this method?:

https://tinyurl.com/mr3n2htx
Neighbor W6GJB and I, who have worked together on antennas for 10-15 years,
have tried a lot of methods. I've used heat shrink selectively to solve
specific problems, but not to cover connections completely.

One of the issues with any connection is that we often need to open them up
to change something, or to troubleshoot an issue. The method we settled on
some years ago is to first wrap the connection with a self-fusing silicone
product like Rescue Tape, then cover it with an overlapped wrap of Scotch 88
to protect it both physically and from UV.
If we need to open up the connection, we can simply unwrap the 88, then
slice the silicone with a knife or razor blade.

This method has worked quite well for us. We do a lot of portable operation
in Glen's contesting trailer

k9yc.com/7QP.pdf

and both of us live in the Santa Cruz Mountains, with a lot of antennas
rigged high in redwoods that experience storm damage, every winter. And also
receiving antennas -- I have two 550 ft long reversible Beverages and a pair
of phased VE3DO loops. We've figured out rigging pretty well
-- after losing a couple of 120 ft high dipoles in 2006-7, the only ones
I've lost since were three that were supported on one end by a 200 ft
Douglas Fir whose root ball was pulled out of the ground! The other end of
all three dipoles were intact. We rig with weights on pulleys, and rigging
is pretty robust.

73, Jim K9YC



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