[Amps] soldering vs crimping

[Vic K2VCO]

It's not tricky if you have three things:

1) The right soldering iron. I have a Weller W100P that I use for this. It's also handy 
for copper tubing and strap in tank circuits, etc. It has a large thermal mass so that the 
heat is transferred to the connector quickly, and is also temperature controlled.

2) Decent connectors. You need these anyway! I have some that I inherited that solder 
doesn't stick to.

3) Decent coax, with good braid coverage. Again, you need this anyway.

On 5/2/2012 9:51 AM, Dick Green WC1M wrote:
> I'm with Carl on this one. Actually, the crimp N-connectors I use have
> center pins designed to be crimped *and* soldered -- there's a little hole
> in the side for soldering. I've found that there's so much variation in
> center conductor size that crimping *and* soldering makes for the most
> secure connection. The UHF crimp connectors I use all require soldering for
> the center conductor -- you can't crimp it. As for the shield, there's no
> question in my mind that crimping is superior to soldering. It's very
> difficult to properly solder shield braid without overheating it and melting
> the dielectric. I'm not saying it can't be done -- only that it's tricky.
> I've only had a few solder connector failures over the years, but they've
> all involved either deformation of the dielectric due to overheating, or
> breaking of the shield because it became brittle after soldering.
>
> 73, Dick WC1M


-- 
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/