Spent 8 hours on a bad coax connector that looked fine

Had a nav system on a Cessna 172 giving intermittent faults, and every test point checked out until I swapped the antenna cable. The BNC connector passed a visual, but the center pin had a hairline crack you could only see with a loupe. What's your go-to method for checking suspect RF connectors beyond a wiggle test?

3 comments

3 Comments

william9171mo ago

Always start with a VNA these days.

ellis.charles1mo ago

My old method was basically just poking things with a stick and hoping for the best. The VNA just laughs at my past self's pain. It's like going from a rusty hammer to a full tool truck. I still have no idea what half the readings mean, but at least they look pretty!

dylan_patel1mo ago

William917 is right, but that shiny VNA graph can also lie to you. I watched a guy chase a ghost signal for two days because his calibration was a little off. The old poke-it method would have found the cold solder joint in five minutes. Sometimes you need both the fancy tool and the basic instinct.