Tag Archives: pl259

Aircell 7 coax review – vs- RG213

Dsc_0113I have used Aircell 7 now for a number of years and have finally replaced all my patch leads in the shack with precise lengths of Aircell 7 coax from SSB Electronics.

For longer runs, I’m still using Westflex and Ecoflex 15 but for portable operation, Aircell 7 is nice and bendy, easy to col up – and has pretty low loss, particularly for HF and short runs (up to 20m for VHF).

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Using Petroleum Jelly for temporary antenna connectors

I’ve been trying to find a product to protect my temporary antenna connectors for either Field Days or my holidays near the sea. The problem is two-fold; firstly water ingress to the coax and the connectors from rain and secondly corrosion. The corrosion issue only seems to occur near salt water and spray and occurs within a couple of days.

petroleum-jellyI used to use self-amalgamating tape for Field Days but the effort in applying and removing it forced me to rethink. I started using high quality insulation tape instead – the stuff that has some nice stretch and doesn’t go brittle in the cold. This worked for many years. Unfortunately, the cheap stuff, from say Maplins might have the required insulation properties but has a brittle plastic feel and not very pliable – it’s certainly difficult to make waterproof between layers. Last time out for Wythall Radio Club SSB Field Day, torrential rain found its way through a crack between two layers of tape and the SWR went high.

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Waterproof PL259 connectors for Ecoflex

Waterproof PL259 ConnectorsI’ve been lucky enough to purchase 100 meters of Ecoflex 15 recently and the solderless connectors are awesome.

Available for Aircell 7 (RG213 replacement) and Ecoflex 10 (Westflex replacement) and this giant 15mm diameter stuff, once fitted they are completely waterproof.

My experience with all these products started with me laying down a few runs for my narrowboat earlier this year because I wanted a low RF leakage product. More recently, I’ve rebuilt most of my spare patch leads with the remainder of the Aircel and Ecoflex left over from the boat build. All my RG213 and Westflex has been relegated to tutoring and testing.

Callum.