Following the current thread regarding soldering of Pl-259's, why not do it the
way the commerical world does... by using a Professional crimping tool??
During the installation of several antennas, hundreds of feet of coax, and
over 50
coax jumpers at the 5V7A site last fall in Togo... nary a solder gun was to
be found or used. No extension cords running hundreds of feet to carry 220v
here, nor on the towers. In the hot African sun, nobody wants to solder
connectors.. I mean nobody.
A simple Professional crimping tool, a sharp knife, and a bag of high
quality crimp-on
PL-259's for RG-213 and RG-8x were the only items needed. All
antennas/towers on the same roof, all 6 operating stations in the same
room... but no noise due to overheated/improperly installed coax connectors.
And in the true ham tradition..... IT WAS CHEAPER (read less
expensive)!!!!
Ah, now I have your attention.
Of course, I can already hear the screams of anguish, the thumping on the
table, the raising of the voices... "They have to be soldered, or it won't
be a good connection"!
Really?
If one was to check the Cellular phone industry, one would find very few
coax connectors soldered, even at their frequency of 800MHZ plus. In the
microwave world, most jumpers on microwave stations are crimped, not soldered.
At 5V7A we ran the Alpha's for 48 hours WITH NO PROBLEMS...
And the cost? the connectors are around $1 each in quantities of 25. the
Professional
Crimp tool was $38 with removable jaws for different sized connectors....
maybe less than a good soldering gun. No extension cords up the tower or on
the roof, makes life
alot eaiser.
Of course you should check this all out yourself.. but no one on our crew
will be soldering PL-259's again...
73 de Mike/ N7MB
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