[TowerTalk] re Soldering PL259s (Rob Atkinson, K5UJ)

[Jim Lux]

At 05:13 AM 11/7/2006, Dennis OConnor wrote:
>Let me second the opinion on crimp connectors...  I have the tool 
>from RF Connectors, via DX Engineeering, and it is a great 
>solution... Also, let me comment that I have been soldering PL-259 
>for neigh onto 50 years and I am quite expert at it  but the crimp 
>connector is a gift... I can have a connector in and finished whilst 
>you are still trying to get the iron hot enough...
>In aircraft, aerospace, etc., soldered connectors are not allowed 
>because of high failure rates.. Only crimped or clamped connections 
>meet specs...

Well, that's not precisely true (not allowed because of high failure rates)..
Crimping is popular for some good reasons:
   With the proper calibrated tooling, crimping provide very 
consistent joints that are pretty much independent of workmanship.  A 
bad crimped connector is easy to figure out and test (inspection 
and/or pull test).  Soldered joints less so. There's also a speed 
issue.  Crimping is faster, and if you are making thousands of joints 
and are in the business of making joints (like building an airplane)....


Other important reasons for crimping have to do with vibration 
tolerance and sealing.  Solder work hardens as the cable vibrates and 
can crack (invisibly). Good sealing with solder is very much a 
function of skill (automated sealing stations for solder closed 
hybrids, good: tech standing in electronics shop, not so 
good)  Crimping (in general) provides a gas tight connection between 
the metal components.   Soldering is used for connectors on 
spacecraft (as well as crimping), a fairly reliability critical 
application, but it's also rigorously inspected and done with fairly 
stringent process and material controls.I suppose this is a 
reliability issue, but I don't that it would be "high failure rates", 
more that it costs a lot more to get the same performance with 
soldered joints than crimped ones.

Jim, W6RMK