Well, an L45W is nice and easy. It's one of the old-style connectors that
has a thread-in center pin (the best kind, in my opinion). Simple
instructions follow - let me know if you want a scan of the actual
instruction sheet. I'd suggest experimenting once on a scrap piece of cable
until you get the hang of it, but don't use the o-rings or the center pin
when experimenting, just use the two halves of the connector - you don't
want to risk cutting or damaging the o-rings or pin during the experiment.
1. Straighten out the end of the cable (make it very straight), then cut
off about three inches of jacket. Make the jacket cut at the center of one
of the "valleys" in the corrugation.
2. Install the smaller-diameter O-ring on the shield so that it's one
corrugation valley away from the end of the jacket. Coat it with silicone
grease. Be careful not to get the o-ring snagged on the sharp end of the
corrugation when installing it; they tear easily if they get nicked.
3. Slide the rear half of the connector onto the end of the cable, over the
O-ring. It will snap/click as it goes over the corrugations. Push it in as
far as you can, stopping at the point where the ridges on the "fingers" on
the end are snapped into one of the "valleys" in the corrugation.
4. Cut the cable off flush with the end of the connector fingers using a
very fine-toothed hacksaw, being careful not to either cut into the fingers,
nor cutting any further away from the fingers than necessary. The goal is
to make the cut right at the "peak" of the corrugation at the tip of the
fingers.
5. Orient the end of the cable vertically so that it's pointing toward the
ground. Tap on it to shake all of the metal filings out. Brush the
dielectric to get all of the filings off it - make sure it's perfectly clean
before going any further.
6. Put the large O-ring below the threads on the back half of the connector
(i.e. just past the threads, closer to the back end of the connector where
the flat spots are for a wrench). Coat it lightly with silicone grease.
7. Slightly (emphasis on slightly) flare out the shield at the end of the
cable. Use something round about 1/4" in diameter (I use the tip of a pair
of needle-nose pliers held closed - the kind of needle-nose that have a
rounded taper, not flat), angled at about 45 degrees, running it in a circle
around the inside of the shield. You'll have to apply a bit of pressure to
get the shield to flare out, but don't over-do it. If you don't flare
enough, the shield won't get pinched as it should between the fingers on the
back half of the connector and the ring "lip" on the inside of the body of
the connector. If you flare too much, you won't be able to get the body of
the connector over the end of the cable. This flaring step is probably
where you will want to practice a bit, screwing the body of the connector
only hand-tight (no wrenches), and then removing it so you can look at the
flare to make sure you see good clean marks from the "lip" biting into the
shield a bit.
8. Thread the center pin into the center conductor using the little steel
rod that comes with the connector to provide torque. Make sure it threads
in nice and straight. It should "squeak" a little as you get it all the way
in; don't over-tighten or it will strip out.
9. Slide the body of the connector onto the cable. Do it very gently, look
into the end of the connector to make sure the center pin is lined up nice
and straight as you ease it on otherwise you can damage/bend it. Keep the
back half of the connector stationary - you only want to turn the body of
the connector. Tighten with wrenches, and again, don't over-tighten.
You'll need big wrenches to do it, and big wrenches tend to also be long
wrenches which give you a lot of torque...
Hope that helped. Kind of weird doing it from memory. Once you've done a
few you won't even have to think about it...
--- Jeff WN3A
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rick Szajkowski
> Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 12:23 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Re: Andrews hard line help
>
> one of the connectors is a Andrews L45W thats a N Mail
> connector .. for the 7/8 Andrews hard line .. ( I cant get to
> the roll of 7/8 right now)
>
> I hope to get to the other connectors tomarrow as I need a
> female for the sinclare 4 bay ..
>
> Thanks to all for the help .. Getting ready to do Tower work
> :) have to do it before the warm weather hits .. hihi
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 7:34 PM, Jeff DePolo
> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:
>
>
>
>
> >
> > Rick
> >
> > Go to the files section and there is a file there "Andrew
> > bulletin 37383C.pdf" that is the instruction sheet
> for connectors.
> >
> > Craig
>
>
> That sheet is for the early L4 series solder-type
> connectors; it may or may
> not be applicable to the original post since we don't
> know which connectors
> he has. It's definately not applicable for the 7/8th's.
> Andrew has come
> out with serveral different series of connectors since
> the days of the
> original L series (without a suffix). The L series
> connectors came out when
> LDF first came out, replacing the HSJ series. For
> exmaple, RingFlare,
> OnePiece, Posi-Stop, and EZfit are some of the newer
> series that come to
> mind.
>
> It would be best if the original poster listed which
> connectors he has on
> hand, and what kind of cable he has (for example,
> LDF5-50A isn't the same as
> LDF5-50B, and the connectors aren't interchangable either).
>
> --- Jeff WN3A
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
