Thanks for that, Walt - perhaps now is the time to scream
about "grey" imports if these were intended only for the internal
Japanese Market?

Unfortunately the Diamond colinear to replace the 5/8ths suffered
from the same problem, and the cable is jammed solidly onto the
antenna, so we may be stuck with it! I assumed that the lower part of the
SO239's screw thread was dirty and so drove the nut home with a
pair of pliers, assuming that this would clear the screw thread - we live
and learn!

I'm now well on the way to repairing the 5/8ths where I had to
engage in destructive test - I've been given a large sheet of
Paxolin/Tufnol which is 7/8ths of an inch thick, so 3 thicknesses
of that araldited together and turned down should do the
trick.

"Walt Davidson" wrote in message
...
"Some cautions: Japan has a
UHF connector that has a slightly
different thread size than the standard
SO-239 (which has a 0.625-
24NEF-2A thread.) This metric
threaded connector is found on nonexport
Japanese ham equipment.
A PL-259 will fit on this connector,
but will only thread on for a few
turns leaving the shield connection
loose and creating an undesirable
condition. MCM sells a UHF bulkhead
connector (#27-220) with the
proper thread that replaces the
most common of these ******* connectors."