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Soldering the Budwig Center Insulator

S

SLR_65

Active Member
Dec 27, 2014
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Hi Guys,

I've been out of electronics/radios for a long time and am just now getting back into it, so I don't have all the tools I used to.

I'm going to set up a 1/2 wave dipole using some 12 or 14 awg copper wire and the Budwig center insulator.

The directions say to solder the wire to the solid copper arms extending from the insulator. My 30 watt pencil iron isn't up to this and I don't have a soldering gun, though if I need one I'll run one down.

I notice the directions say to clamp a pair of pliers on as a heat sink and then to solder the end of the solid copper arm....I'm thinking I should be safe using a torch? If not, what are you guys using for this?

Thanks!

Steve
 

Yes a small torch will work. Just be careful not to de solder the curent connections. If you can post a photo it might help us visualize things much easier. But a small torch should work just fine.
 
Here's a drawing from the instructions, the wire stubs they left sticking out to solder to are about 3/16" in diameter (5awg?) and 1-1/2" long.

I actually thought about some split bolts instead of soldering. (this is going under the eaves of the house, so it won't be free hanging in the air catching a lot of wind nor will the end anchor points be able to flex or move around)

3267-1420998719-d67605aa781ba954af6a59f070f289bf.jpg
 
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#1 I am not a fan of using a torch unless you can master the fine art of heat control. It's also much too easy to burn all the flux away witb a torch. Now if you have a special soldering iron tip for a torch then you can use ot in sub-zero temps. A decent soldering gun is your best bet for something lime this. Something in the 100/140 watt range. If I had to choose between marrettes (wire nuts) and split bolts I would probably go with the split bolts. Just MHO of course.
 
Actually those would work almost like the split bolt idea but I still prefer soldering. Anyone that builds their own antennas should have the gear and be proficient at using it. It makes life sooooo much easier .
 
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I don't have my notes handy, but I took the diameter of the stub they left sticking out plus two times the diameter of 12 awg wire (because you are wrapping it around the stub) and added them together, I think it was just shy of 3/8" if I recall correctly, and the #4 hose clamp goes from 1/4" up to around a 1/2". They make 'em smaller too.

I agree if one were going to do this long term they should get what they need, but I'm just playing right now...years ago when I was a kid my family fell in with the CB craze of the '70s, my brother especially and he ended up with a full Yaesu FT-101E station. He let me use it and I got my ham ticket at 13. When he went to college he left the station so I was able to play with it until I went to college. After that I never got back to it (and my brother sold the station years ago).

My later hobbies were restoring cars and high power model rocketry and fireworks...until recently I was actually licensed as manufacturer so I could build my own stuff.

Unfortunately this spring I lost the majority of the vision in my right eye and they don't know why, it's a blood flow issue but they don't know what's causing it or if it will happen in the other one.

I don't want to have a pile of hazmats to deal with if things go bad and I don't enjoy driving much any more so the cars aren't interesting me any more either, so I've took up playing with Arduino micro controllers and doing some minor electronic repairs for friends (putting new convergence chips, etc. in older big screens) just to keep busy and that led me back to radio playing. Whether it'll hold my interest or not we'll see, for now I'm just playing so I'm just looking at getting a bare bones antenna up and going.

A buddy of mine builds trailers and motorcycle trikes in his spare time and he has a soldering gun, so I think I'll make the trek over there and solder them up. I'm sure the hose clamps would work, at least short term, but since I've located the proper tool I'll just do it the proper way.

Thanks all!

Steve
 
Hi Guys,

My buddy had a Weller 200/230 watt soldering gun, it worked perfect! I clamped a pair of vice grips up against the plastic on the wire/ear and then used the soldering gun to heat up the wire and melted the solder on it and it flowed perfect.

Now to get it mounted under the eaves.

I see they say it's best to run 90 degrees out from a dipole for at least 1/4 wave length, unfortunately I won't be able to do that, I'll run a couple feet back to the house and then run parallel to one leg until the corner of the house and then around the corner to the radio room. Hopefully that works! I'll report back how it goes.
 
Got the dipole up today, next time I'll use solid core wire as I had to tune it a bit and unwinding stranded sucks.

I've read where using solid core and leaving a pigtail hanging down to trim is the move with a dipole, I think I'll try that next time.

Also found out I can turn the touch lamp by the bed on remotely! :cool:
 
SLR_65 said:
Got the dipole up today, next time I'll use solid core wire as I had to tune it a bit and unwinding stranded sucks.
Click to expand...

Why does it suck? Been using stranded wire of all sizes for antennas for almost 40 years and never thought it sucked. Repeatedly winding/unwinding solid wire will weaken it and cause it to break eventually. It's also stiffer to work with and harder to take the kinks out of.


I've read where using solid core and leaving a pigtail hanging down to trim is the move with a dipole, I think I'll try that next time.
Click to expand...

Not sure how you would do that as it would have to be beyond the twisted/knotted end and that would mean the knot/twisted end would actually then be in the signal path instead of simply at the end. It could affect tuning by adding a series coil(inductance). Besides that what is stopping you from leaving a piece of stranded wire instead? It should only be a few inches and if it was 14 ga it would be stiff enough for that.

Also found out I can turn the touch lamp by the bed on remotely! :cool:
Click to expand...

Welcome to the world of stray RF and shitty devices affected by it. Touch lamps are the worst bane ever inflicted upon the radio operator. They can also cause RF interference in some cases too BTW.
 
The stranded wire I used is coated 12 ga thhn building wire, I just have a buddy who's an Electrician and I'm tech support for his PCs so he spotted me some wire.

I bared the ends and twisted the wire back on it's self, I've read where you don't have to, but it seems it does affect tuning and I wanted to solder the wire once it was tuned anyway. I may have twisted it too tightly as it liked to flatten out as it was twisted and trying to unwind tight twists and then re-twist it after adjustment was doable, but not fun and the individual strands really liked to spread out as it was unwound.

I'm not near my machine and bookmarks right now, but I didn't have to retune it too much, I used some math I found on the net to zero in quickly, so it wasn't a huge problem.

The using solid core wire and leaving a pigtail is on several web sites...rather than ending at the insulator and then twisting back on the wire the recommendation is to not twist it all back on it's self, twist enough to allow tensioning the wire and then leave a pigtail hanging straight down - that pigtail still counts as length and can be easily trimmed for tuning without having to unwind the wire. I will probably give that a shot next time I build a dipole, for now this one is up an zeroed well so no need to mess with it further.

Along with the pigtail recommendation, several sites even suggested forgoing the end insulators since most of us use tie offs made of insulative material anyway - just twist a loop in the wire and tie off to the loop, again leaving a pigtail hanging down for tuning.

Thanks for the insight!

Steve
 

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