Yes, the 3/8" chisel tip is great.

100w or higher 700 deg. autotemp weller.
many used on the forsale forums and ebay.

Big difference between a heat sink and heat source !


Chris W wrote:

I forgot to bring up resistive soldering, does any one use one of
those? I guess if I get a big iron that will work good. I used a 140
watt gun for the UHF connector I did first, I hear the big irons work
better because of the larger thermal mass, I may try the heat gun trick
too. I have a small heat gun that will get up to 200 and something F or so.

--
Chris W
KE5GIX

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On Fri, 23 Dec 2005 14:01:08 -0600, Chris W wrote:

Bob Miller wrote:

As Doc said, solder.

Get a Weller SP-120 soldering iron. It's 120 watts. About $46. You can
typically find it by Googling.


Thanks for the suggestion on the iron, I found it for $40 which isn't
too bad.

You'll need that kind of heat to solder coax connector outer shells to
the braid. Get the ARRL Handbook, and look at their pages on soldering
coax connectors.


I guess the book you are talking about isn't the antenna book, I can't
find much on soldering in there.

If you have the ARRL Antenna Book (I have the 19th edition) page 24-21
talks about PL-259 assembly, and explains how to prepare the coax and
solder it to the connector. This is in the chapter labled
"Transmission Lines" if you have another edition of the book.

bob
k5qwg

On Fri, 23 Dec 2005 01:05:36 -0600, Chris W wrote:

I am new in ham radio and want to get set up to make the coax assemblies
I will inevitably be needing in the future. I am planing on using only
LMR style coax 240, 400, 600 and maybe some 900 if I get into the 1.2ghz
stuff. So is it better to use the crimp, clamp or solder on
connectors. In the case of the center conductor, there are some where
that is solder and the outer is crimp or clamp so is crimp and or clamp
ok for the outer conductor and solder better for the inner? I welcome
all points of view on this. Thanks for you input.

You should not dismiss crimp connectors as inferior to soldered
connections. Crimp connectors, properly executed with correct fitting
dies, produce a very good result, they are good electrically, and they
often have superior strength compared to "field serviceable"
connectors (the solder / braid clamp) type.

For my own use, I:
- avoid PL-259 type connectors (that is not to mean UHF);
- prefer N type for thicker cables and all outdoors (whether or not in
the weather);
- on Heliax, prefer the connectors that are sealed by injection of
silicone into the backshell, ambivalent about whether the centre pin
is soldered or spring contact (which are usually cheaper and quicker);
- prefer BNC on thin patch cables and fly leads;
- prefer crimped connectors to "field serviceable" connectors in
indoors applications;
- prefer sealed connectors for all outdoors applications, and question
whether most sealed crimp connectors are actually effective through
life;
- keep a pair of multigrips handy for times when UHF connectors must
be used.

If you are choosing to use LMR cables, you might want to look at
LMR195 (I think) which is dimensionally similar to RG58 and can use
low cost RG58 crimp connectors.

If you use BNC (or TNC for that matter), look at whether the
connectors you buy locate / retain the centre pin independently of the
wire connection.

Owen
--

"'Doc" bravely wrote to "All" (23 Dec 05 11:22:03)
--- on the heady topic of " Crimp, Clamp or Solder?"

'D From: 'Doc
'D Xref: core-easynews rec.radio.amateur.antenna:221739



'D Chris,
'D Solder.
'D 'Doc

Spot weld.
Makes great thermocouple joints.

A*s*i*m*o*v

Get a Weller SP-120 soldering iron. It's 120 watts. About $46. You can
typically find it by Googling.
A ~200W soldering gun from Radio Shack or Home Depot will also work fine.

Tam/WB2TT

I'm a cheapskate who uses a soldering gun about as often as I make new
coax lines. (It happens, but I don't spend much time at it.) If you
have a Harbor Freight tool store near you, they have a 180 watt gun you
can usually catch on sale for 6.99. Not as good as a Weller, I'm sure
but so far the solder hasn't noticed.

73
Kip W6KIP

If a crimp is done properly, its consistently superior to solder, unless
you’re a NASA certified solder person. When I say properly, I mean well
designed connectors with the correct crimp tool and tension. Much of the
cheap, off shore cable assys with crimp connectors are sub standard and
that can give crimp an unwarranted bad name. If you give the same crimp
connectors, tools and instructions to a bunch of hams, you will get
consistent results. Give the same group solder connectors and various
heat implements and the results will vary from excellent to disastrous.
Do you really know what’s inside that PL-259 that you just soldered to a
piece of foam dielectric LMR cable? Did the solder gun turn the foam
into a solid blob of some new kind of plastic inside the connector? Are
you positive the heat didn’t make the center conductor migrate in the
dielectric? Did the solder flow up the braid and make a future failure
point beyond the connector? I participated in assembling an aircraft
wiring harness once (will never do that again) and solder was completely
off limits, only crimp connectors could be used. The reasons for crimp
were consistency in performance, the ability to audit the crimp tools
and people’s lives were at stake if something failed.
Mike


Chris W wrote:
I am new in ham radio and want to get set up to make the coax assemblies
I will inevitably be needing in the future. I am planing on using only
LMR style coax 240, 400, 600 and maybe some 900 if I get into the 1.2ghz
stuff. So is it better to use the crimp, clamp or solder on
connectors. In the case of the center conductor, there are some where
that is solder and the outer is crimp or clamp so is crimp and or clamp
ok for the outer conductor and solder better for the inner? I welcome
all points of view on this. Thanks for you input.

that is solder and the outer is crimp or clamp so is crimp and or clamp
ok for the outer conductor and solder better for the inner?

I vote all 3 crimp it clamp it and solder it.
make a good mechanical connection - then solder it.

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

On Sun, 25 Dec 2005 01:19:59 -0500, "Hal Rosser"
wrote:


I vote all 3 crimp it clamp it and solder it.
make a good mechanical connection - then solder it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't forget to add Loctite, spot weld, drop forge, nuclear laser,
explosive forming, refractory conditioning, epoxy, RTV, sixteen
layers of Scotch #33 tape and the Pope's blessing.

Those who are non-Catholics have a problem. :-)

73, Bill W6WRT

Make that Scotch #33+ pelase....

Bill Turner wrote:
ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

On Sun, 25 Dec 2005 01:19:59 -0500, "Hal Rosser"
wrote:


I vote all 3 crimp it clamp it and solder it.
make a good mechanical connection - then solder it.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't forget to add Loctite, spot weld, drop forge, nuclear laser,
explosive forming, refractory conditioning, epoxy, RTV, sixteen
layers of Scotch #33 tape and the Pope's blessing.

Those who are non-Catholics have a problem. :-)

73, Bill W6WRT

I recommend cryogenic processing of all coax connectors !

http://www.metal-wear.com/

Don't forget to add Loctite, spot weld, drop forge, nuclear laser,
explosive forming, refractory conditioning, epoxy, RTV, sixteen
layers of Scotch #33 tape and the Pope's blessing.