FT-857D - Bad SO-239

One of the SO-239's on my FT-857D has had on-going pin problems. I use the radio for all of my portable operating as well as mobile so I am hooking it up and unhooking it all the time. The pin on the VHF/UHF SO-239 has been pretty loose and has even broken a few times. Before I just opened the case and soldered the pin connection again. This works - for a while.

I pulled the rig out of the truck a while ago to use in the house and the solder connection broke again when I pulled off the VHF/UHF coax. So this time I decided to glue the pin in place while I had the case open.

The way the SO-239 is designed is that the pin is supposed to snap in to place and not pull out. However, my pin has loosened up so the snap-in part doesn't work too well anymore. If I get a tight fitting PL-259 the SO-239 pin sticks to the PL-259 and un-snaps.

I wasn't able to pull the pin all the way out to get glue inside because of the solder and wire for connecting the pin to the circuit board. I didn't feel like de-soldering it either.

I used JB Weld. This stuff usually works well for metal and plastic so I figured it would be good for this application. I Just filled in the back side of the SO-239 around the pin and dielectric (not all the way out to ground, just inside the dielectric.

Hopefully it holds! I will find out in the morning...