[BULK] - RE: [TowerTalk] Re: Cutting braid

[Steve Katz]

As I am typing this I am listening on 2m to one of my "will not tin the
braid first, rather cause TVI" hams complaining about the high SWR on his HF
antenna.  Some people just never learn.

::How does not tinning braid cause TVI?  Or how does tinning braid prevent
it?  For that matter, I'd love to know how tinning braid really accomplishes
anything, since copper is extremely solderable with very inactive flux, and
solder flows to it like a duck to water without doing anything except
getting it hot enough.  

::The reason "everybody" (military, industrial, commercial enterprises) went
to "hot solder dipped" component leads back in the late 1970s was because
component manufacturers followed no standards at all, and everybody did
whatever they wished to meet military solderability standards.  So, the
standard became "HSD" for a little while.  But it is no longer, and now that
there are international RoHS standards requiring the use of only non-lead
solders in most everything beginning next year, this "tinning" is becoming
very controversial at least, and is likely to be obsoleted by environmental
standards very soon.  In the interim, few component manufacturers use tinned
leads any more, only because this proved to be a solution to a problem that
didn't really exist.  (WB2WIK/6)