Yes, that's one of the serious weaknesses of the "UHF" connectors, IMHO. I've not had any trouble spinning the center pin enough to cause trouble but if the outer shell is not screwed tight to hold the connector sections snugly, one has an unstable and intermittent ground connection in the coax. That leads to all sorts of odd problems that can be tough to troubleshoot - intermittent noise on receive, intermittent SWR jumping about on transmit and even arcing while transmitting producing distorted audio, noise sidebands, etc.
For that reason I'm very careful to ensure those connectors are all *tight*. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- > I cannot picture how you could "spin" the CENTER conductor. That would > require twisting the coax attached to the male half. Sure, it shouldn't happen if the op uses diligence in keeping all connectors tight. But if the PL-259 becomes loose and ever-so-slightly unmates from the SO-239, the retention "teeth" no longer inhibit connector rotation. Any lateral pressure from the cable, especially from large, inflexible cables, causes the SO-239 pin to rotate. Paul, W9AC ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
