[TowerTalk] PL259 Connectors Part 2

[Bob K6UJ]

Tim,

I tried this method and and after a couple of tries I think I have 
mastered it.
Please bear with me, hihi.
I trimmed the braid slightly over 1/8" away from the end of the 
connector shell and then fanned out
and folded the braid back over the end of the shell.  Then soldered the 
braid to the end of the
connector shell.  The soldering only takes up 1/8" at the end of the 
connector.  My first attempts
had the soldering to the braid too far up on the connector and I 
couldn't unscrew the connector barrel enough.
That's why I am now using the 1/8" trim.
The pictures of the last steps showing the soldering of the braid to the 
shell could be clearer. :-)
I use shrink tubing and slide it over the soldered joint just enough to 
insure I can unscrew the connector barrel
and it looks great.   I like this process, no over heating the 
dielectric as you said, no question about a good
soldered connection to the shell,  and super strong.
I have a hunch that others that may have tried it didn't like the look 
of the finished result.  Yes the soldered
joint to the shell is there for god and everyone to see :-) but if the 
shield strands are trimmed equally before
soldering and then the connector and coax junction is either taped or 
shrink tube is used (one of which is a good
idea to do) then it is a great PL-259 connection and looks pretty too hihi.

73,
Bob
K6UJ



On 5/11/16 6:27 PM, Tim Duffy wrote:
> Hello Jim:
>
> As you reported - W3LPL and K3LR (and many others) are using this method
> with the Amphenol 83-1SP of soldering the shield on the back of the
> connector. It works great.
>
> http://www.k3lr.com/engineering/pl259/
>
>
> No melted dielectric and very visible great soldered connection of the
> shield. No failures here at the K3LR multi multi station in over 30 years -
> and the contest station success efforts - show good results.
>
> Hope to see you in Dayton
>
> 73
> Tim K3LR
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jim
> Brown
> Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2016 8:05 PM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] PL259 Connectors Part 2
>
> On Tue,5/10/2016 4:48 PM, Kevin Stover wrote:
>> I tried to pull one off a waste piece of coax. Connector clamped in my
>> bench vise and two guys pulling on the coax.
>> Didn't budge. Try that with the soldered connector.
> A properly installed soldered Amphenol 83-1SP makes a pretty strong
> connection to the coax. "Properly installed" includes stripping just
> enough braid so that it shows through the solder holes and so that the
> coax jacket screws into the connector shell, soldering the braid at each
> hole so that it flows well, and doing a good soldering job on the center
> conductor. Many times, I've had to yank pretty hard on the RG11 attached
> to high dipoles to guide them away from tree limbs, etc. So far, I've
> never had one pull apart.
>
> K3LR has developed a method of soldering the braid to the OUTSIDE of the
> connector shell and covering it with heat shrink. That's probably even
> stronger!  I've done that with a few connectors, but wasn't thrilled
> with the result. QST published it a few years ago, and I think it's
> somewhere on the internet.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
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