Idaho BS thread in the PNW

can you swap antenna's between yours and his??? its possible too, you have a dud..... I should ask though is a firestick??

 

Ya we did swap, both 4 ft firesticks

 

Have an extra cable laying around?

 

1. Take one end of the disconnected coax. Remember, we are NOT able to test continuity with the coax connected to any equipment or antennas. Touch one multimeter lead to the center pin of the PL-259 plug and the other to the outer metal part of the plug. You should hear nothing, indicating that the cable is not shorted. This is always the first test, because we must eliminate the possibility of shorts before we can make any assumptions about the center conductors or the shield.
2. Next, take the clip lead and use it to short the coax at one end by connecting the center pin of one of the PL-259 connectors (it doesn't matter which one) to the shield side of that same connector. Take the free end of the coax and touch one multimeter probe to the center pin and the other to the metal shield of that PL-259. You should now hear the buzzer that indicates continuity.
3. You have now completed the basic tests, because you have determined that the cable is not shorted and by passing a current through the entire length of the center conductor and back through the shield, you have determined that both the center conductor and shield are intact. The final test is to flex the cable and wiggle the connectors while performing both of these tests again. If it helps, you can add two additional clip leads to connect the multimeter probes so that you don't have to try to hold them in contact with the PL connectors. This will help determine if the cable is intermittent.
4. If the cable fails any of the tests, feel free to test the shield to shield and center pin to center pin connections separately. Never use a cable that is suspect, because it could cause damage to your equipment.
5. Last but not to be missed is a final check along the length of the cable for any obvious bad spots, such as a break in the outer jacket or any suspicious bends or bumps in the cable.
   

Sory forgot we cant test the continuity without proper gear.... run the 5 steps above....

Another quick test, take a jumper cable from you Negative post of you battery and put to the antenna mount bolt, see if the antenna works

 

Ok. I take one lead of my meter and connect it to the center pin of the plug and then touch the outer shield (metal ring) and I have Continuity. Am I doing this right? And if so my cable is shit. Correct?

 

Correct. The center pin should be insulated from the outer ring. The pin carries the power to the antenna. If it grounds out on the way to the antenna, you have an RF leak and will have shit for TX power.

 

Yep. Cable is bad.

 

Well...according to this my coax is shit then.....fuck. I got an expensive hand built muther fucker too.....damn.

 

Eh, I build them every day and fuck them up on a regular basis. One little hair of copper wire will fubar a whole cable. Are the connectors removable? Some of them have compression nuts and you can take them apart and fix them.

 

Hand built coax?

Where'd you get it from?

 

was just going to say did the guy fuck up the connectors hahahahahahaha

if you can remove the connectors and test again with out the connectors, center wire to outer shielding and see if you have continuity if you do, you have a bunked cable

 

In 13 years of being a professional radio nerd, I have never seen a cable shorted from the factory. I have seen a few that have taken direct hits from lightning melt the insulation and short, but without a lot of heat it is very unlikely. What is common is that the dbag that terminated the cable was hungover and in a hurry and didn't peel the strands of shielding carefully resulting in a short. It happens.

 

yup!!!! I deal with bad connectors alot, its why I have the tools to fix em....

 

Thanks guys. Im going to contact her (the maker) and see what she can do. Ive had it in the truck for over a year though. We will see I guess.

 

Hell a new 18' Wilson cable is 20 bucks..is it worth it to go through the trouble?

 

Oregon somewhere. Bought it off Amazon with my 520xl, Frederick and all the mounts.

 

Hmm, cool.

Yeah, if you've had it on the truck for that long I doubt they'll do anything about it.

 

Probably not.....but im pissed about it is all.

 

f1 kers system fitted to renaults new twizy one seater

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyS1LnDodu8

 

Those look like fun. I want one for my commute on sunny days