On Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:10:59 +0100, "David"
wrote:

I applied the
grease as thick as I could to prevent any corrosion.

Hi David,

Protection is not often a product of liberal application.

It looks like using to
much grease might be all or some of my problem.

Hard to imagine. If you are clamping things together, the notion of
"too much" takes care of itself. i.e. You cannot have "too much"
toothpaste in the tube if you squeeze hard.

If, as you say, this is "conductive" grease, then clamping down hard
also brings electrical continuity and there is no issue of having "too
much" grease.

So, what this basically devolves to is: "did you apply enough
clamping?"

The only place I didn't put
any grease was on the elements were the matching network connects to.

Why?

I used
clear silicon sealant for those.

This has an acid base (depending upon the formulation being one of the
common, garden variety sealers) that sometimes brings problems of
corrosion. Again, this depends on the formulation.

However, the noise you describe is not one ascribed to grease in any
form, nor to sealants whatever their propensity is for corrosion.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC