I've given hundreds of talks over the years on this subject as part of an over-all talk on wire antennas....
Here's suggestions ... Use --only-- silver-plated connectors with silver-plated shells. Tin the braid and then treat it as if it was a piece of tubing and cut it to length with a small tubing cutter. Leave about a 1/16" portion of the center dielectric protruding from the braid when the dielectric is removed from the center conductor. There's a recess in the center pin's insulation to accept this protrusion. Use a taper reamer to enlarge the four solder holes in the body of the connector as much as possible. The holes will then be the diameter of the U-shaped area in the connector body, making soldering iron contact with the previously tinned braid much easier. This is a good place to remember to put the shell of the connector on the coax ... in the correct direction. (;-) The threads inside the connector are for screwing the connector onto the outer jacket of the cable and ---not--- for screwing reducers for RG-58 or RG-59 into the connector. That's an incidental came- later feature. Note that the threads inside the connector are "square" to prevent cutting into the outer jacket of the cable. Hint: A tiny touch of silicone grease on the outside of the jacket will help ... the ribbed front portion of the connector is for finger gripping ... or perhaps a small assist with slip-joint pliers. There is a correct way to handle RG-58 and RG-59 reducers and solder them correctly. 73! Ken Kopp - K0PP kengk...@gmail.com ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
