On Sun, 26 Jul 1998 ATanner283@aol.com wrote:
>
> Hi all....I saw a post a little while back about soldering difficulties with
> 213 coax. Here is a system I have been using with great success. Get yourself
> a small tube cutter, the kind you use for copper tubing. Score the plastic
> outer shield with it. Just go deep enuff to barely cut thru the plastic only.
> This makes a nice "square " cut. Next, tin the braid. Now take the cutter
> again and make a deep score in the tinned braid the correct distance from the
> outer covering. Flex the braid a couple of times and it will separate in a
> very nice "square" end also. Now take the cutter and cut thru the plastic down
> to the wire. I usually don't go the full depth so as not to "ding" the center
> connector. Tin center connector. If you have made your lengths correct it will
> screw together tightly and the braid WILL fit in the 259 right up to the holes
> and past so you can make a very nice connection inside and out. I know there
> are variations of this but this works super for me. I ahve used it on 2213,and
> RG 58. Also with foam, plastic, and air dieletrics. I have also used it on the
> extra flexible 213 that I bought last year and it works super. Another feller
> ham told me about this, so I am not the originator by any means. Good luck and
I do almost the same thing but with a little twist Al. Instead of tinning
the braid with a soldering iron or gun, I use a small solder pot. Solder
pots are used for tinning wire leads and hold about a cup of molten solder
at the correct temperature...kind of like a small heated crucible. Just a
few drops of liquid solder flux, rosin or water soluable, plunge the end
of the coax into the solder pot up to the jacket for just a second and
quickly withdraw and cool.
The result is a very nicely tinned brain, very little solder to increase
the diameter and no damage to the dielectric or center conductor. Then I
use the tubing cutter to trim the braid to the correct length, expose the
center conductor and tin that in a similar fashion. It works great.
The secret to soldering the PL-259 shell onto the brwaid is to use a BIG
iron. I use a 350 W iron that must weigh 2 pounds. They used to use them
to solder copper flashing and gutters. It gets the shell hot in seconds
without melting the coax or dielectric.
Any good electronic material supply house will have the big irons and
solder pots. Just be sure to fill the solder pot with fluxless solder
(Bar Solder) and not the flux containing solder that you use for
everything else.
73,
Gary K9GS
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