That stress can be alleviated by using a short pig-tail, even a lossy one as on such short ones the loss will not be meaningful yet the stress relief will. I find I can actually hold the radio up and read the display while my antenna is pointing down or at whatever angle reception is the best.. With practice, you can even operate the radio/antenna single handed.

73 de Amir K9CHP, member ARRL, AMSAT #36083

K9 Training Officer, Cayuga County Highland SAR, http://www.cayuganet.org/highlandsar/index.html

K9 Certification Tester, NYS Federation of SAR Teams www.nysfedsar.org http://www.nysfedsar.org/

1^st Special Response Group (1SRG) www.1srg.org http://www.1srg.org/

Apprentice Tracker, Joel Hardin Professional Tracking Services, www.jhardin-inc.org http://www.jhardin-inc.org/

Clint Bradford wrote:

The AL-800 places a great deal of stress on your BNC connector - please be very careful when using it.

I prefer the Smiley 270A, with its built-in spring at the bottom. I even use their SMA model with confidence.

http://www.htantennas.com

Clint Bradford, K6LCS 909-241-7666

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