Hello Jay,
Thanks for the tips, have you tried butane yet? Quick hot-on and off- from
what I read, I've not tried it yet. I did buy a 120 watt weller gun for my
next attempt. I have a 500' spool of lmr-400 to practice, with good
connectors.
I'll prolly start with making jumpers between stuff until I get the hang
of it.
73
Steve
Jay in the Mojave wrote:
Hello Steve:
I will share with you what I know and my experiences.
Soldering the PL-259 Connectors is not an easy task, it takes some
practice.
Yes you will a 100 watt iron or the heavy duty soldering gun 250 watts
or more. And plug it in and let get hot for around 5 to 10 minutes.
I use the Silver plated PL-259 Connectors well worth the extra cost to
allow for a quick and easy solder job. The nickel plated PL-259
connectors I don't use, but in a bind I will use a Chain Saw small round
file to open up the 4 soldering holes and expose the brass that is much
easier to solder to. Trying to solder to the nickel plating is dog ****.
And will get the PL-259 Connector tooooo toooo HOT!
Be sure that the coax center and shield wires are shiny and clean from
dirt and oil. DO NOT try to solder them if these wires are corroded or
dingy looking, a good indication the coax may have gotten water in it.
You might have to cut back the coax a foot or two to get to shiny copper
looking wires. If after cutting the coax back a foot or two and shield
wire is still looking not shiny I say get new coax. Or very easily
scrape off the none shiny coating off the coax wires.
I Tin the center wire of the Coax, or give it a quick lite application
of solder, then with a exzato knife I scrape the center wire of any left
over solder, allowing it to fit inside the PL-259 center pin.
There are many places on the net here that will show how the PL-259
should be soldered and how the coax should be stripped.
The important thing to remember is that you need to practice doing
soldering the PL-259 connectors. Its ok to get too much heat on the
connector at first, but you want to be able to get on the PL-259
connector with the coax and connector being held in a vice and make the
solder job of one of the holes and then get off. I also have a wet paper
towel to cool the PL-259 connector if I get too hot.
I file a small notch into the soldering iron tip to allow a small part
of the soldering iron tip to go inside the soldering holes of the PL-259
connector. This is a big help when you want to get on the connector
solder it, and get off right away. Coaxes like LMR 400 have a really
light weight dielectric material between the center and shield wire that
is easy to get too hot have a short in the coax. So being able to get
on, solder, and get the soldering iron off the PL-259 connector is
important.
I plan on putting a video on the web site showing how to solder the
PL-259 connectors.
Here's a few web sites for ya....
http://www.seed-solutions.com/gregor...rimentation/So
lderCoax.htm
http://www.hcarc.us/articles/solderi...connectors.htm
http://www.mgs4u.com/Connector-PL-259-guide.pdf
Jay in the Mojave
Steve wrote:
Butane? I know torch soldering sounds like overkill but it works if
you're quick enough to not melt the coax. Otherwise you need at least a
100w electric gun.
Opinions?
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