Warning: a bad crimp on a 737's main radio antenna almost cost me a whole day in Dallas

I was doing a routine check on a 737-800 in Dallas last month and the VHF comms kept dropping. Traced it back to a coax connector in the tail section that someone had crimped with the wrong tool, leaving a tiny gap. Had to re-run the whole cable, which took about 4 hours in that tight space. Anyone else run into a simple connector causing a huge headache?

3 comments

3 Comments

hall.charles1mo ago

That GPS antenna story from @the_spencer reminds me of a bad crimp that grounded a Dash-8 for a day.

hill.jade1mo ago

Honestly I've had the opposite experience with those crimp issues. I mean, yeah they're annoying, but I usually find them pretty fast with a good wiggle test. Maybe it's just me but chasing a bad ground strap or a weird software bug always takes way longer. Those tiny connector problems at least give you a clear place to start looking.

the_spencer1mo ago

That's the worst. Seen a bad coax crimp on a GPS antenna cause a whole MEL write-up once. Those tiny gaps create such intermittent faults. Always feels like a wild goose chase until you find it. Makes you want to check every connector in the system after that.