Coaxial patchcord issues.

[wa2ise]

Reminds me of the time I found the cause of some AM broadcast band intermodulation products trashing a favorite but weak AM station. Did the usual hunting, with a portable radio, and eventually found that it was, of all things, a loose UHF connector on the back of my TS440SAT HF rig, which I hadn't used for some time. Seems that the coax cable running from the vertical in my back yard (which is well grounded), then thru the rig, and then the power supply, negative output also connected to the ground (earth) wire of the 3 wire power cord, thru the outlet and house wire which leads to the electric service entrance safety ground, formed a nice big loop of wire to capture a significant amount of AM radio signal energy. And I thought it was gonna be a rusty rain gutter or such...

Imagine the problems I would have had had I decided to get on HF with that connector loose like that...