Stretching Things a Bit Too Much
[July 2011] Whenever someone is are working on a project, one of Murphy’s Laws says: “what can go wrong, will.” Another law, it seems, is that any wire will always be an inch or so short of connecting.
There is an old tailor’s line that comes to mind: “Measure twice, cut once.” Apparently, someone missed that when they installed this sample line to be used for an MoM Proof.
A chain of connectors bridges the gap
The engineer brought in to do the MoM Proof and found this surmised that the folks who installed it were trying to lengthen the cable so it could connect to the bare Type N chassis mount connector semi-soldered to the inner and outer conductors of the 3/8 inch coax line at the bottom of the ATU.
Connected – but not very pretty
As can be seen from the following cell phone photo (sorry about the fuzziness), five connectors were used to bridge that last three inches.
Five connectors disassembled
While those few inches in of themselves might not have made a significant contribution to the antenna monitor readings, the electrical loss through the connectors and the potential for deterioration of the mechanical connection just made this solution a future problem waiting to bite the station.
Suffice it to say the MoM Proof stopped right there! Soon, new coax will be the correct length.
We thank our source for this picture. As always, the goal is not to embarrass anyone so much as to learn from what we see. Do you have a good example? Please share with us.