[TowerTalk] Soldering PL-259

[Al Kozakiewicz]

I detest the prep and the inability of any Weller soldering gun I own to heat the barrel of the connector up to soldering temperature in my lifetime without melting the cable jacket.

I've migrated to crimp on UHF and N connectors.  I do solder the center pin on the UHF jobs.  I really don't see how crimping the shield and protecting it with heat shrink is any worse than soldering and protecting with heat shrink.  All the failures I have experiences were from water ingress eating away at the dielectric,  The electrical connections were fine, while the dielectric turned black 2 feet from the connector.

Al
AB2ZY

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From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com [towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Tom Martin [tmartin at chartermi.net]
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2011 1:44 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Soldering PL-259

    A few weeks ago, I started with a 50' length of RG-213 and, after many attempts at soldering PL-259s, the coax was 44' long.  HI!

Lately, I have been ordering coax lengths with the connectors already soldered.  I use them for runs from external antenna relays to the antennas.

DIN plugs are the job that I really hate.  I order a few more than I need because of soldering errors.

73,

Tom W8JWN

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