RF leakage?

[rexxar]

We use RFID pads at work to check in/out items, and on one the SMA(?) connector is broken and the inner conductor is exposed. This pad seems to have a hard time detecting the RFID tags, so I wonder if maybe the RF is leaking out and coming into the tranciever at a lower level than normal?

[T3sl4co1l]

Probably a combination of reflected energy (the partially-open cable looks like an open circuit, bouncing energy back to the source) and radiated loss (once it gets outside the cable, it can go anywhere -- is there any sensitivity near the cable?).

Tim

[SeanB]

Broken connection to the internal antenna coil then, so that the power transmitted to power the tag is much reduced. This also compounds in having a high SWR on transmit which then reduces the sensitivity of the receiver as well.