[TowerTalk] Cordless solder irons

[Jim Thomson]

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 19:10:23 -0800
From: "Don " <w7wll at arrl.net>
To: "Towertalk" <towertalk at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Some advice about crimp ;type coax connectors

Which brings a question to mind. Why is there not available for sale a 
decent battery powered soldering iron. Sure would be nice when in the air 
not to be tied to an AC power cord. I did a search (probably not very deep) 
and found some battery powered irons but nothing that would deal with a few 
UHF connectors out and away from the 'house'. A friend from Australia who 
was in the 2-way radio business had a couple he brought when he immigrated 
from Oz but I've been unable to find that they are made anymore.

Anyone have information on such a tool for use whilst up in the air??

Don W7WLL

##  from 1979-1989...in the telco I worked in 400 miles north of here, we had 
a cordless, rechargeable soldering iron.  Think it was a weller...was orange in colour. 
Worked superb.... but never tried it outside.. only inside.  They were real small, light weight,
fit in your pocket. A lot smaller than a normal pencil iron.    I believe they would work fine
outside.  A comment here. Silver plated PL-259s  are a LOT easier to solder vs
the nickel plated types.   I gave up on amphenol nickel plated /teflon PL-259s.

##  I picked up 2  dozen van gordon silver /teflon  PL-259 years ago.  They solder
real easy. 

##  Id check out cordless types 1st.   You can probably get em with spare, quick swap out
lithium batteries no doubt.   The propane /butane types would also work, but are more cumbersome
heavy etc... esp up a tower.   In good wx... Id run an extension cord up the tower..and use my
american beauty 100 w iron, with the .375 inch chisel tip.   We used dozens of those irons in the telco,
back when a lot of wiring was still being soldered.   I have a few of them.   You can also get the bigger
ones, like 150w and up to 600 watt.   The 100 w version... used to solder a silver plated coax connector,
is super fast.   The bigger ones like the 500-600w are used for plumbing..where a blow torch cant be used.
The bigger ones work great for stuff like tubing type tank coils, large wide cu strap, etc. 

Jim   VE7RF