[TowerTalk] Soldering up a tower

[john at kk9a.com]

A 25 watt soldering iron can work great on the ground but very poorly on
the tower. Not long ago I bought a Weller 40 watt pencil iron and it works
great on the tower for everything but coax connectors. Weller makes the
best soldering irons!  I have a Weller propane soldering iron which also
works well, but I prefer the electric one.

John KK9A


To:	towertalk at contesting.com
Subject:	[TowerTalk] Soldering up a tower
From:	Bill Feissner <ai3q at pa.metrocast.net>
Date:	Tue, 28 Jul 2015 18:09:17 -0400

Having been reading about soldering irons I have a question. Just recently
had to do some soldering about 25 feet up my tower, I had to run 150 feet
of #12 extension cord out and part way up the tower. I was using a 25 watt
iron that gets a tip temp of 750 degrees F. An occasional breeze would
hinder the solder from melting using a conical tip. I did manage to get
the job done but was wondering if the screwdriver tip and a 1000 degree F
tip would have made the job any easier, retaining more heat when the
breeze blew. Any thoughts on this would be helpful for the next time.
Thanks
Bill, AI3Q