[TowerTalk] tinning braid

[Craig Clark]

>    1. Soldering PL259s Help Silver based solder (Rick Scott)
>

Hi Scotty.

Your 9913 coax, by spec, has a tinned solder braid. It also has a 
foil shield that covers the poly-tube. There really is no reason to 
re-tin it with solder. The only commonly available coax that I know 
of that comes with a silver braid is RG214.

IMHO, there is no reason to tin coax braid before your solder a 
connector on as it is an unnecessary extra step....yes I did it that 
way in the past. But now that I do thousands a year on all sorts of 
coax, I have stopped.

Your mechanical connection comes from making sure the connector has 
enough plastic to thread over as your screw it on. The electrical 
connection comes from the both mechanical pressure and soldering 
through the four holes (on a PL259.)

As an experiment, use a dual heat Weller gun and see if the coax will 
take a regular 60/40 electronic solder. The use the same with the 
silver solder. If you have it, try the newer lead free solders with 
tin, silver and copper. Do they all work?

Most connector failures are the fault of not enough heat being used 
and their cold solder joints.

I personally favor the Solder-it torch for all of my connector jobs

73, Craig Clark, K1QX


RADIOWARE AND RADIO BOOKSTORE
PO  BOX 209
RINDGE NH 03461
603 899 6957
WWW.RADIO-WARE.COM