I use a 150 watt Weller gun equipped with a 12 guage solid copper wire for a
tip (no rough edges) to tin the braid and center contuctor.
Then I use my 250 watt Weller gun to solder the connector to the coax. I
always trim and solder the center conductor to the connector pin first
because I have had some connectors start to unscrew themselves when I am
soldering the braid to the barrel.
A good friend of mine uses a 1500 watt hot air gun that is designed for
stripping paint to solder the braid to the connector. His hot air gun
delivers a nicer looking connection than my 250 watt Weller.
It does take a couple of connectors to get the hang of the procedure but
once you do master the procedure installing PL-259's on coax can almost
become fun.
Something I forgot to mention in an earlier post is I do not use cable with
foam dialectric. In Arizona the cable will heat up from the sun and the
center conductor will drift. However I have used this braid tinning method
on foam and it does work, just a little more difficult to work with.
As I am typing this I am listening on 2m to one of my "will not tin the
braid first, rather cause TVI" hams complaining about the high SWR on his HF
antenna. Some people just never learn.
Someone else mentioned crimp connectors. I like them too but do not feel
the $200 cost of the tool justifies it for private use. Another real
advantage to the crimp tool is that everyone does the connectors the same.
de Paul, W8AEF
-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of W2RU - Bud Hippisley
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 4:13 PM
To: 'Tower Talk'
Subject: [TowerTalk] Re: Cutting braid
What I haven't seen mentioned in this series of postings about properly
installing PL-259 connectors is a recommended wattage for the soldering iron
or gun.
> SNIP
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