Quote:
Originally Posted by rabbit73
Thanks for the report with the good news.
That sounds like "cold flow"" of the center conductor through the dielectric so that it made contact with the shield and caused a short. This happens when the coax is bent in a smaller radius than allowed by the specs, especially in coax that has a foam dielectric.
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So as a rule of thumb, what would be the radius?
I think the tension was part of the problem, about 50%.
I also suspect that when I fixed one end, the other end went bad, sort of Murphy's law in abundance.
From your Google search:
http://www.marineelectronicsjournal....view&ac=1&a=99
Quote:
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The specifications for the cable will list all of the above pertinent information, including maximum recommended pulling tension and minimum bend radius. Failure to adhere to these requirements will result in physical distortion of the cable and, again, reflection losses. When in doubt concerning these limits, do not exceed 50 pounds pulling tension or bend radius less than 12 times the cable diameter. If your installation routing path for the cable requires you to exceed these limits, find a kinder, gentler route.
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1/4 inch X's 12 = 3 inch radius?
3/8" x 12 = 4.5 inches
I don't think I was less than 6 inch radius, but there was some tension the first few times.
NOTE:
This time around I grounded the pole/mast of the antenna, then did an auto-scan for channels. This is what allowed me to really get in Ch 9 out of Canada in most clearly. There was still a little intermittent scramble prior to those last steps.
