[Cu-wireless] volunteer needed: research cable construction

[David Young]

Today I think Sascha and I *may* have made some mistakes in installing
an antenna and wireless router at his house which will will cost us for
replacement of a cable in the future. When RF connectors are $5 a pop, and
LMR-400 is .30 to .50 a foot, we cannot afford avoidable mistakes.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to help us take the guesswork
and sloppiness out of our installs.

Please, someone research cable-building and prepare to tell us
authoritatively at our meeting next Thursday how to

1 apply a crimp connector to LMR-400 cable: must we solder the
  center pin? if yes/no, why do people disagree on this point?  how do we
  produce a good crimp, every time? what are the tolerances for applying
  a crimp connector? how do we test a crimp connection on the bench?
  in the field?

2 strain-relieve and waterproof a crimp connector

3 waterproof an attachment made by two N connectors

4 avoid ruined cables and unnecessary RF loss

If you must go to the manufacturers (for example, RF Industries) to find
authoritative answers, do.

Also, please find affordable suppliers for the materials we will need to
produce robust, waterproof connections out of doors. Do not prematurely
disqualify local hardware stores and electrical supply places.

I encourage you to try to invite somebody to give this talk. For
authoritative answers, you might try Stu at Alliance Communications.
He was really friendly when I talked to him months ago, and he seems to
have lots of experience in microwave telecom. Also, local ham operators
(like Mike Lehman, who lurks on this list) may have answers.

Dave

-- 
David Young             OJC Technologies
dyoung at onthejob.net     Engineering from the Right Brain
                        Urbana, IL * (217) 278-3933