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? about testing my RG-8U with PL259 ends

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UnidenBC92XLT

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Ok I got my Antron-99 up in the air today. I put one of my PL259 on my coax on the antenna end so I could terminate it before getting it up in the air. I got it all done and got my coax ran up through the floor. I put my PL259 end on it and I get continuity between center pen and ground. Will it show continuity with the other end hooked up to the Antron-99? I know other end is good I tested it after soldering it before I terminated it. Any help is appreciated. I even unscrewed the end in the house to make sure a ground wasnt touching the center pin and I get continuity between center pin and braid with the connector off.
 

LtDoc

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If you are testing that continuity with both ends of the cable disconnected, then there's a short in that cable run somewhere. An Antron-99 will show a sort all by it's self, so testing a cable when attached to that antenna isn't going to tell you anything about the cable it's self. So where's that short? I have no idea, probably at one of the connectors.
- 'Doc
 

rescue161

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You can use an antenna analyzer, a communications service monitor with the right software/hardware, a network analyzer with the right software/hardware, or just use a plain old Watt meter between your radio and the antenna. If the Watt meter reads four Watts on output and none or almost none on reflected, then the coax/antenna can be considered good.
 

UnidenBC92XLT

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Ok thanks. I guess I just need to get up there and unhook it from the Antron and test for continuity then hook it back up. I just don't want to fry a radio. I did check the Antenna end before hooking it up and was good. I didn't know you couldn't test the end in the house if antenna was hooked to other end. I already had the antenna up before I ran the coax in the house and put the end on it. Thanks for the help its much appreciated.
 

UnidenBC92XLT

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I just have a AC/DC Volt ohm meeter. I don't have a watt meter. I'm new to all of this and don't know much as you can probably tell.
 

w2xq

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Wirelessly posted (Moto Droid Bionic: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; UPC300-2.2 Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Am I missing something? Using your VOM on the ohm setting and the coax disconnected from both the antenna and the radio, connect the two VOM leads. One goes to the center pin, the other to the shell of the connector.

If the meter reads 0 ohms, there is a short. As explained earlier, the problem is probably in one of the connectors.

If the meter reads "infinite" the cable MAY be OK.

This test cannot tell you if there is continuity between the cable ends.

I understand the cable is already installed. FWIW I put connectors on both ends first and additionally test pin-to-pin and shell-to-shell continuity before running the cable.

Assuming the pin-to-shell VOM test passes, I agree with the earlier suggestion of usng an inexpensive SWR/power meter to see how the antenna and coax behave. It might be easier than puling and rerun the cable run.

HTH.
 
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rescue161

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Yes, he knows that. He just did not want to disconnect the coax from his antenna that is already mounted. His antenna reads a direct short by design, so the end of his coax also reads a short. He was asking if there was any other way besides removing the coax from the antenna to check the coax.
 

DisasterGuy

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It sounds like you are overthinking this a bit. You tested the the antenna end after terminating it and you know that a proper termination to the antenna (due to the antenna's electrical characteristics) should show continuity. The situation that you currently describe is exactly the way things should be. Unless you abused the hell out of the cable when installing it there is no reason there should be any problems.
 

rescue161

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But, either one of the connectors on the coax could have been shorted together during installation of the connectors and would show continuity as well, so if he doesn't have a service monitor, network analyzer or a Watt meter, he needs to remove the coax from the system and test it by itself.
 

UnidenBC92XLT

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Ok guys I climed back up there and unhooked the coax and tested the end at the antenna and the end in the house. Both were good no continuity between center pin and ground. So all is good. Thanks for the help. I guess now I know you cant test it with antenna hooked up in the future. Thanks for all the help.
 

MeddleMan

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Too much solder to ground shield on pl259?

I personally melted too much solder to ground, which shorted to the center, where nothing separates the two. That's within the connector. Start again, not too much solder if you use it to ground to shield, and a touch on the tip of the center connector, and try to avoid the crimp connectors if you can. Not much luck for me.
 

n5ims

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You could've connected it up to a radio and checked to see if you could receive a signal. If the connector inside was shorted, this probably would prevent most signals from being received as well. Just a thought.
 
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