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odd pl259 ??
- Thread starter camaro1
- Start date
That's a dreadful solder job,inner conductor cut too short,solder looks like it hasn't been heated properly and inner conductor looks like it was never tinned, total shambles,one of the poorest I've seen.especially from someone selling them.
Done properly, the center conductor should be the same length as the PL-259's center pin and soldered firmly. In other words you should see the end of the cable center conductor in the PL-259's center pin.
Question: If the center conductor doesn't show any solder and you cannot see the cables center conductor, what is the solder job like on the shield?
Like Capt'n said it's best to build your cables yourself if you can.
Question: If the center conductor doesn't show any solder and you cannot see the cables center conductor, what is the solder job like on the shield?
Like Capt'n said it's best to build your cables yourself if you can.
You certainly can't beat your own job, but it needs to be done right with the proper tools, a trick I use and I know others do too is once I remove sheath I tin the whole braid,allow it to cool,then cut it exactly within a mm or so with a plumbers pipe cuter, I then remove both that and the dielectric and tin the centre conductor/s, that's the cable prepared,
if nickel plugs especially I file the tip cut out and the edge of the body solder holes,then tin them all whilst held in a vice,if you overfill the holes you can suck it out with a solder sucker. If you overfill tip tinning it,cover body holes with fingers (teflon tips help wae this one) and heat the centre pin with iron,give a hefty blow at cable entry end excess solder will come flying out and fuck up any carpets it hits,so do it over an empty ashtray or board or something the missus won't inflict serious bodily harm on you for damaging, you can use this cheap and dirty technique to reuse plugs too or reft shorted plugs, get the rg213 into plug and solder tip and solder holes,chaeck for no shorts with multimeter, I suggest a 50-100w iron for 10.3 mm cable, you wan't that job done as fast as possible. if you overfill body holes you can file the blobs down for a neat finish with jewellers file,
Next job attach to antenna, tune, seal up with self amalgamating tape and as you guys love to say,fergetaboutit, because it will last years. And with some practice and careful meeasuring of where to cut through tinned braid you can make consistent cable lengths within mm of each other,it gets easy with practice.
if nickel plugs especially I file the tip cut out and the edge of the body solder holes,then tin them all whilst held in a vice,if you overfill the holes you can suck it out with a solder sucker. If you overfill tip tinning it,cover body holes with fingers (teflon tips help wae this one) and heat the centre pin with iron,give a hefty blow at cable entry end excess solder will come flying out and fuck up any carpets it hits,so do it over an empty ashtray or board or something the missus won't inflict serious bodily harm on you for damaging, you can use this cheap and dirty technique to reuse plugs too or reft shorted plugs, get the rg213 into plug and solder tip and solder holes,chaeck for no shorts with multimeter, I suggest a 50-100w iron for 10.3 mm cable, you wan't that job done as fast as possible. if you overfill body holes you can file the blobs down for a neat finish with jewellers file,
Next job attach to antenna, tune, seal up with self amalgamating tape and as you guys love to say,fergetaboutit, because it will last years. And with some practice and careful meeasuring of where to cut through tinned braid you can make consistent cable lengths within mm of each other,it gets easy with practice.
Likewise. Tinning the whole shield makes the job 10 times easier especially when it comes to soldering the braid through the holes. Dob a bit of flux around the edges as well just to help things along.
Oh and use a decent iron with a decent wattage, not the same low powered one you use to do PCBs with.
Oh and use a decent iron with a decent wattage, not the same low powered one you use to do PCBs with.
On my coax I fanned out the braid and soldered it to the tip of the reducer(RG8X) and then trimmed the excess.
Here's the info.
http://www.w5fc.org/files/how-to/PL259.PDF
Here's the info.
http://www.w5fc.org/files/how-to/PL259.PDF
PL-259 connectors only come in one size, for 0.49" cables. If a cable is smaller than that you have to use a reducer. There are only two reducers that I'm aware of, for RG-58 and RG-8x/RG-59 size cables. The wrong size reducer can be made to work with cables but it is not easy and -not- the best thing to do. That "making it work" involves reducing the diameter of the cable or filling in a gap from a too small cable. There are more than one way of doing the 'reducing/filling', but always requires an addition 'tool' of some kind and time. Just get the right reducer, you know?
- 'Doc
- 'Doc
Aye captain!
I found out about the two sizes of reducers a while back when I ordered coax without connectors for my base antenna. My RG8X just would not go into the reducers I bought so I still had a old 1980's silver Stinger-X RG8X cable with a couple of reducers on it. The way I soldered my braid to the reducer meant that the reducer now has to make a tight physical connection to the PL-259 to maintain a good electrical connection.
The R/S no-solder connector pictured will accept a RG58U and has a set screw to bite into the coax shield. The center conductor just slides into the small hole inside the connector's center conductor.
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First! Do it right if you have the time.
But, if you don't have the right reducer, the coax won't fit through it, then skin off a bit more outer insulation and then fit the reducer to it. Fill up that 'empty' space with glue of some kind. If nothing else, CA or 'super glue' will work, so will hot-glue. If the cable is too small for the reducer then do it like if it was the right size then fill up the gap with some of that glue. That's strictly a 'make do' thingy! The one sort of benefit to it is that the glue typically stops some moisture infiltration. No, that's not worth the effort all by it's self.
- 'Doc
(Did I think of this 'solution' all by my self? If it helps then Yes I Did. If it isn't a help then of course not, I stole it from someone. That's called a mixture of modesty and truth. Which can also be defined as B.S.)
But, if you don't have the right reducer, the coax won't fit through it, then skin off a bit more outer insulation and then fit the reducer to it. Fill up that 'empty' space with glue of some kind. If nothing else, CA or 'super glue' will work, so will hot-glue. If the cable is too small for the reducer then do it like if it was the right size then fill up the gap with some of that glue. That's strictly a 'make do' thingy! The one sort of benefit to it is that the glue typically stops some moisture infiltration. No, that's not worth the effort all by it's self.
- 'Doc
(Did I think of this 'solution' all by my self? If it helps then Yes I Did. If it isn't a help then of course not, I stole it from someone. That's called a mixture of modesty and truth. Which can also be defined as B.S.)