[Amps] Alpha 87A Won't Transmit

[Robert W5AJ]

I've enjoyed hearing how others attach coax connectors 
not so much belittling someone about their method they have successfully
used.

I'm on LR method, probably for life.
Many in the local club swear by the DXE crimp on - it works, it works, it
works.
will I ever solder through hole again, probably not.   Preaching won't
change that.
Did the ARRL sanction a method to put on PL259s? HAHA!   An author for QST
or some other ARRL mag wrote an article on it but the ARRL doesn't do
soldering standards last I checked.
That said, maybe I will call club member and try DXE crimp method.....
and I'm headed to Harbor freight to pick up that tap and die set to use for
coax jacket cutting (That will be nice! TNX  Jim)

well, last week the tiller found underground coax.. didn't use any
connectors, hooked center, soldered, taped, tailed the braid and soldered
those together, tape.  That AL shield was just not rejoined.
and I never pull electrical tape apart, cut it.  plumbers pull Teflon tape,
cut electrical tape..

73 W5AJ

Robert
Midland, Texas
http://pages.suddenlink.net/w5aj/

-----Original Message-----
From: Amps [mailto:amps-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Rob Atkinson
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2021 4:55 AM
To: amps at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [Amps] Alpha 87A Won't Transmit

Some of the tricks and techniques I've been reading here such as using a
torch, filing the barrel, and enlarging the braid holes, indicate a
misunderstanding about how heat should be applied.
I tried some of those methods too before I figured it out.  Firstly, you
need a decent i.e. Amphenol male, and copper braid and center conductor.
Dress the cable so the center and braid are appropriately exposed, no
whisker shorts and the barrel screws onto the jacket after the threaded
collar goes on.  clamp the cable in a vise close to the barrel with one of
the barrel holes facing up.  Now, here's what you
need:  A decent temperature controlled Weller solder station with a
700 or 800 degree tip, but not any tip.  You should have a broad flat head
tip that resembles the end of a flat head screwdriver, but the
width of the tip should allow it to fit inside the barrel hole.   With
the iron heated up, put the tip flat against the braid and apply solder and
let it flow on the braid, filling up the hole.  The mistake everyone makes
is they heat the barrel first.  You don't get some huge iron or torch and
stand there getting the barrel hot as hell, you solder to the braid first,
let it fill with the solder heating the barrel, then move the tip around the
hole until the solder wicks to
the metal.   Quickly release, rotate and clamp the cable in the vise
to the next hole and repeat.  The barrel will get hotter as you work
with the solder flow and you'll wind up with four soldered holes.   I
think this is the method Jim K9YC was describing.  You have to have a
temperature controlled iron that will pull current and stay hot as heat is
sinked out.  I use a Weller WTCPT
https://www.rshughes.com/p/Weller-Soldering-Station-00114/037103_00114/
.

73
Rob
K5UJ
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