Hi All:
My recommendation is to use the tool made by the company that makes your
connector. They know what works best with their connectors. Having said
that, all BNC's for RG174 and RG58 are almost the same and the inexpensive
tool made by Amphonal and others work very well. It will cost you from $50
to $70 but it will work OK. They take interchangeable dies and you can use
the dies from almost any similar looking tool in any of the handles. Type
N's for RG-213 work well in crimp and I've think that Amphonal's RFX series
crimp on PL259 (available for 213 and 58 with crimp braid and solder center
conductor) works well and a tool with interchangeable dies makes going all
crimp a little cheaper.
About 20 years ago I quit using as much as possible solder on connectors. I
find a well assembled crimp better in all respects than an average solder on
connector. I've used a lot of them too. I've worked for years in the High
Energy Physics world and have installed 1000's of connectors on coax. As an
example one small experiment we did had 9 miles of RG-213 with crimp on
connectors and 1 miles of RG174 cut into 2' pieces with connectors crimped
on. Not one failure do to connectors in the 4 years the experiment ran. The
secret is to follow the manufactures directions EXACTLY and take care not to
nick the braid or center conductor when striping the coax.

John Passaneau
Penn State University
University Park Pa.
"Roy Lewallen" wrote in message
...
Danny Richardson wrote:

Thank you for the response, however, because others have suggested
soldering I feel an explanation may be in order. I have been installing
soldered coax connectors for more than fifty
years and feel I was pretty good at it, however, with advancing years
I have lost considerable motor skills and can not hold a soldering
iron (or anything else) very steady. My problem, at the moment, is
trying to make up some BNC connectors using RG-174. Although crimp on
connecters may not be the best choice, for me they appear to be a
viable option. Hence my inquiry as to what would be a good choice in
crimp on tools.

That's definitely a good reason, and the kind I appreciate more and more
as time goes by. I'm sure it won't be long before I'm in the same boat, so
I'll pay attention to the tool suggestions too.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL