BCD436HP/BCD536HP: BCD-436hp find!

Ok so I got dust on my LCD,took it apart today and cleaned it!
But I resoldered the SMA connector and took the felt out from in front of the speaker and put it all back together and guess what? It works better now ,I gained 1 to 2 bars in signal.Hasrouck Heights is now coming in better,I had issues with that town before,so I know its better.
That EPA approved solder they are using is rank,I used the old stuff!
The scanner works decent now,like I wanted it to from the factory! Yee-haw!

k2ool said:

Ok so I got dust on my LCD,took it apart today and cleaned it!
But I resoldered the SMA connector and took the felt out from in front of the speaker and put it all back together and guess what? It works better now ,I gained 1 to 2 bars in signal.Hasrouck Heights is now coming in better,I had issues with that town before,so I know its better.
That EPA approved solder they are using is rank,I used the old stuff!
The scanner works decent now,like I wanted it to from the factory! Yee-haw!

Click to expand...

Good Job ! Uniden's quality control on the *36HP scanners certainly has been a big topic this past year.

Don't blame Uniden. Blame the damned tree huggers for degrading stuff, like the solder.

This new solder Uniden and darn near the rest of the electronics industry is very brittle. I've measured resistance in solder connections due to hairline cracks/breaks that the human eye can not see.

Yep, the low lead/leadless solder is not so good. As mentioned it is far more brittle and seems to actually crack more often and easier than say the old 60/40 solders. Also the melting point is much higher than older 60/40 solder.

I find very often that connections that have a lot of mass, larger cross section, often do not get properly preheated and soldered in the IR or wave soldering machines.

I fix probably 2-3 cold solder joints a month on everything to water heater controllers, stereo gear, automotive assemblies, you name it. More often than not the cracked joints were cold to begin with and/or as subject to slight more stress or vibration that other areas of the competent or assembly.

I will be inspecting my 436HP internally soon so I will look at the antenna connection when I have it apart, may retouch the connection with some 60/40 and/or install a small wire to bridge the joint if needed.