Hands down best RG8X?

[Unidener]

In the Air Force.. I had to take high reliability soldering a bunch of times, one of the instructors had actually taken the NASA standard course (of course this was years ago), the big thing that I got out of his class on soldering the RF connectors was that the braid has to be brushed out with a tool made of the same material as the braid. That there was to be no overlapping braid where it was put over the little shelf thing, everything else was mostly common sense. The instructor said that at NASA they had them connect their practice cable up to a bar and do a chin up on it to prove its strength (obviously years ago). What I had to learn on my own was that with most RF connectors from N to SMA, is it's really important to grip the body with a wrench before tightening down the nut (or it would twist and ruin the connection) AND most wrenches are too thick for doing this, we learned that some ignition wrenches are thin enough.



and of course, last but not least, crimping tools should ratchet, a connector should have to be fully crimped before the tool will release.... If anyone else but you are going to use it, figure out how to release the ratcheting action BEFORE someone gets their finger stuck, (or a pencil or whatever).

Thanks
Joel

A novice (me) would think if I used the right size cable with the right size fitting it would be no problem!?! More learning.....we do have a Radio Shack (not associated with the old RS) but it's owned by a Ham and if he wasn't on vacation I would be taking up his time.....I bought some RG-8x (Tramflex) to connect my car antenna and soldered the connectors on. 30 years ago when I did work ham good info was hard to find....

 

[JustinWHT]

Pre-made coax are almost always crimped. Its faster and not as labor intensive as soldering, and just as effective and reliable.

I make several a week with crimp tool with the appropriately sized dies. Search Amazon for radio coax crimp tool and you'll find several for
$22 to $52.For the occasional DIY I would solder.

For 1/2" and 3/" I use a stripping tool that does the job with a few twists.

 

[MUTNAV]

Ok... one more related question.... for BNC connectors, The quality and any other factors of crimp vs compression connectors. The only experience I have is that the compression connectors felt better, but it's a very limited experience.

Thanks
Joel

 

[mmckenna]

I worked for about 3 years in the college cable TV station. I pretty much redid all the analog video coaxial cable and audio cabling. I probably installed a few hundred crimp BNC connectors onto 75Ω coax. I never had any issues with them.

The compression connectors were nice, but due to the sheer volume of connectors I had to install, there was no way they were going to waste all that money on me doing things that way.

 

[Unidener]

Pre-made coax are almost always crimped. Its faster and not as labor intensive as soldering, and just as effective and reliable.

I make several a week with crimp tool with the appropriately sized dies. Search Amazon for radio coax crimp tool and you'll find several for
$22 to $52.For the occasional DIY I would solder.

For 1/2" and 3/" I use a stripping tool that does the job with a few twists.

 

[Unidener]

Like I said I've been soldering and I do have to wait (seems for a long time) for solder to take (40w iron)....have I been melting dielectric? Using what I learned over 30 years ago and a lot has been learned since then that's why I'm asking all the questions. I do need to meet local hams and talk.....but they meet on Saturday mornings at a restaurant which is hard for me since my wife sleeps in. When in the cable industry we crimped and I've cut all sizes of cable 750 & 500 Kcmil Cable and RG-6 & RG-11 (not to mention fusion splicing fiber). So I'm experienced with cutting cables and braid, bad splicing & fittings very important to prevent nearby TV and other transmissions from entering cable causing cross-talk. Now the cable companies use a compression fitting with no crimping (I believe) and of course the center conductor just slid into the connectors)

I would rather crimp so would a crimping kit from Amazoo with the right dies be better than my soldering? Not to mention with this cable and the fittings the center conductor (with crimping) needs either solder or pin crimped to the center conductor (again am I damaging the dielectric with soldering?)....I'm not expecting the best numbers for loss but could crimping give me better SWR? Currently with just setting up and testing with a mobile whip (SWRs under 2). Would my SWR be better with a "good" jumper vs the soldered one I made? I think I will go to the local store and purchase a jumper and see if my SWR will improve. If so then my over 30 year old 40 watt soldering iron be worn out and I'm using too much heat?

So the question is invest in the right solder iron (w/correct wattage) or purchase a $40-$50 crimp & die set?

Thanks for all of the replies on my novice questions....

 

[rf_patriot200]

Like I said I've been soldering and I do have to wait (seems for a long time) for solder to take (40w iron)....have I been melting dielectric? Using what I learned over 30 years ago and a lot has been learned since then that's why I'm asking all the questions. I do need to meet local hams and talk.....but they meet on Saturday mornings at a restaurant which is hard for me since my wife sleeps in. When in the cable industry we crimped and I've cut all sizes of cable 750 & 500 Kcmil Cable and RG-6 & RG-11 (not to mention fusion splicing fiber). So I'm experienced with cutting cables and braid, bad splicing & fittings very important to prevent nearby TV and other transmissions from entering cable causing cross-talk. Now the cable companies use a compression fitting with no crimping (I believe) and of course the center conductor just slid into the connectors)

I would rather crimp so would a crimping kit from Amazoo with the right dies be better than my soldering? Not to mention with this cable and the fittings the center conductor (with crimping) needs either solder or pin crimped to the center conductor (again am I damaging the dielectric with soldering?)....I'm not expecting the best numbers for loss but could crimping give me better SWR? Currently with just setting up and testing with a mobile whip (SWRs under 2). Would my SWR be better with a "good" jumper vs the soldered one I made? I think I will go to the local store and purchase a jumper and see if my SWR will improve. If so then my over 30 year old 40 watt soldering iron be worn out and I'm using too much heat?

So the question is invest in the right solder iron (w/correct wattage) or purchase a $40-$50 crimp & die set?

Thanks for all of the replies on my novice questions....

Being somewhat ancient, I prefer to solder my connections. I use a Weller WESD soldering station with adjustable temps, 10 second heat time and a variety of tips.

 

[AK9R]

Hate to ask but is there an inexpensive crimp tool?

I wouldn't go too cheap.

I have this set from Quicksilver Radio: Quicksilver Radio | Ham Radio Store

 

[WA8ZTZ]

Like I said I've been soldering and I do have to wait (seems for a long time) for solder to take (40w iron)....have I been melting dielectric?

Probably. A 40 watt iron on a PL259 is going to take forever to get the connector hot enough to melt solder. However, it will be plenty hot enough to melt dielectric in the meantime. If you want to solder the braid on, say, RG213 to a PL259, use, for example, a Weller 250 watt gun with a big tip that will transfer a ton of heat quickly. The idea is to get the connector hot as fast as possible, let the solder flow, and get the iron/gun off before the dielectric is damaged. Let the solder cool completely before moving the coax. Even so, with foam type dielectric you still run the risk of having it start to melt. Therefore. IMHO, go with crimp style connectors and feel confident that you have a good connection.

 

[WA8ZTZ]

Check out the DXE "Next Generation" PL259s. You solder the center pin (easy) and then crimp the braid... the best of both worlds.

 

[JustinWHT]

Probably. A 40 watt iron on a PL259 is going to take forever to get the connector hot enough to melt solder.

I use a sixty year old 600 watt soldering iron. Weighs about 2 pounds, 2 inch diameter, 8 inches long. In a dark room you can see a dim orange glow.

/edit to add advertisement of current model
Made by American Beauty

550 Watt, 1-1/8" Heavy-Duty Soldering Iron

American Beauty Tools tackle challenging soldering jobs with our Heavy-Duty Soldering Irons and Stations, Resistance Soldering Systems and Solder Pots.

americanbeautytools.com

 

[mmckenna]

So the question is invest in the right solder iron (w/correct wattage) or purchase a $40-$50 crimp & die set?

Thanks for all of the replies on my novice questions....

Go with the crimp connectors and one of the basic crimper sets. With the crimp connectors, you're not going to damage the cable/dielectric. I've trained some of our field techs on installing coax connectors, and it is not hard to learn. You already have some background, so you'll do fine.
Soldering can work, but you'll need to have different size irons if you want to do it right, especially larger cable, like RG-8 and UHF connectors. Those require a hot soldering iron with enough wattage to get the heat in quickly and not melt the dielectric.

So, how many cable TV connectors did you solder on?

 

[JustinWHT]

Ignore that. I corrected it from 250 watts to 600 watts but couldn't delete a erroneous reply

 

[JustinWHT]

how many cable TV connectors did you solder on?

Or to rephrase that.... How many 75 ohm TV cable Type F connectors did I have to recrimp cuz I messed up the first half dozen?

 

[MUTNAV]

Go with the crimp connectors and one of the basic crimper sets. With the crimp connectors, you're not going to damage the cable/dielectric. I've trained some of our field techs on installing coax connectors, and it is not hard to learn. You already have some background, so you'll do fine.
Soldering can work, but you'll need to have different size irons if you want to do it right, especially larger cable, like RG-8 and UHF connectors. Those require a hot soldering iron with enough wattage to get the heat in quickly and not melt the dielectric.

So, how many cable TV connectors did you solder on?

A LOT depends on experience and any special needs. for some equipment I worked on, an N connector would have to be put on, then the phase length measured in comparison with another cable, then it would have to be redone to get if correct... sometimes numerous times. So solder connectors were the only way to go.

Once a person gets a good 'feel' for how much heat is being dumped onto a piece, it's easy to control (at least for me).

Personally I stayed away from multiple wattage irons because it's like building muscles when exercising, build strength in a muscle and it takes a little while to get precise control back (at least that's how my body works, I don't know about anyone else).

There's a formula to make only two cuts to get the phasing right, but there was an undocumented "trick" needed to make the formula work.

Thanks
Joel

 

[Unidener]

I worked for about 3 years in the college cable TV station. I pretty much redid all the analog video coaxial cable and audio cabling. I probably installed a few hundred crimp BNC connectors onto 75Ω coax. I never had any issues with them.

The compression connectors were nice, but due to the sheer volume of connectors I had to install, there was no way they were going to waste all that money on me doing things that way.

Compression connectors are all used by Spectrum (TW; Comcast....all the same now) cable now and I was told they were the least compromised by insertion loss & ingress.

Go with the crimp connectors and one of the basic crimper sets. With the crimp connectors, you're not going to damage the cable/dielectric. I've trained some of our field techs on installing coax connectors, and it is not hard to learn. You already have some background, so you'll do fine.
Soldering can work, but you'll need to have different size irons if you want to do it right, especially larger cable, like RG-8 and UHF connectors. Those require a hot soldering iron with enough wattage to get the heat in quickly and not melt the dielectric.

So, how many cable TV connectors did you solder on?

I will be using this for mostly 1 MHz to 420 MHz and when looking at Times Microwave LMR UltraFlex or just LMR-400 specs seem to talk mostly UHF but if it's good enough for UHF can I "Assume" it will be fine for low frequencies? I will mostly be using this for my feedline and I will need enough bend to come up the wall and go into wallplate with pl-259 connections. Will I be able to bend it safely for this or should my feeding just go through wall or to a 90 degree connector for the back of the plate?

 

[Unidener]

I use a sixty year old 600 watt soldering iron. Weighs about 2 pounds, 2 inch diameter, 8 inches long. In a dark room you can see a dim orange glow.

/edit to add advertisement of current model
Made by American Beauty

550 Watt, 1-1/8" Heavy-Duty Soldering Iron

American Beauty Tools tackle challenging soldering jobs with our Heavy-Duty Soldering Irons and Stations, Resistance Soldering Systems and Solder Pots.

americanbeautytools.com

That's a monster and I'd need to win the lottery before I spend that money! It's getting to the point where I'll be spending more on soldering tools that cost more than my antenna. The only permanent part will be the feedline because I'll be changing antennas when needed as needed.

 

[Unidener]

Check out the DXE "Next Generation" PL259s. You solder the center pin (easy) and then crimp the braid... the best of both worlds.

What watt or temp for soldering? Which will transfer heat to the dialectic faster solid or stranded center conductor? It would be nice if the center conductor was the center conductor vs crimp or solder (going back to the CATV days)......

 

[KF5LJW]

I work for a very large telecom company, which includes cellular. If an employee or contractor is caught trying to solder on a coax connector, they would be escorted off the site and banned for life.

 

[mmckenna]

Compression connectors are all used by Spectrum (TW; Comcast....all the same now) cable now and I was told they were the least compromised by insertion loss & ingress.

Right, no soldering, no games, just properly done connections.

I will be using this for mostly 1 MHz to 420 MHz and when looking at Times Microwave LMR UltraFlex or just LMR-400 specs seem to talk mostly UHF but if it's good enough for UHF can I "Assume" it will be fine for low frequencies? I will mostly be using this for my feedline and I will need enough bend to come up the wall and go into wallplate with pl-259 connections. Will I be able to bend it safely for this or should my feeding just go through wall or to a 90 degree connector for the back of the plate?

As the frequency drops, the performance gets better, so this will absolutely work on lower frequencies better than it will on higher frequencies.

LMR-400 is kind of stiff, so you may want a 90º fitting behind the wall plate if that's how you want to install it.