Brian,
What you say is true, a soldered connection used in a high vibration
application will fail at the point where the solder has wicked up into
the (stranded) wire. This is an important consideration in aircraft and
other mobile applications.
In ham home station applications where the wire is not subjected to
severe vibration, a soldered connection is often more reliable than a
crimped connection. That is especially true if the crimping tool is not
exactly the proper type for the connector in use. A good crimping tool
is a rather expensive tool - it must be matched to the connector and the
wire to be crimped. Inexpensive substitutes may work for a while, but
will result in a connection that is more unreliable than a soldered
connection.
The *real* answer is "it all depends ...".
73,
Don W3FPR
Brian Lloyd wrote:
On Nov 14, 2008, at 10:06 AM, Joe Spencer wrote:
I have several Crimper tools but do not really trust crimped power
connectors so...I solder all my PowerPoles connectors. It is easy to
do...they work everytime and never a crimp problem.
Crimp-only connections last longer than do crimp-and-solder
connections and are just as low resistance. When you solder the
crimped connection the solder wicks up the wire and creates fatigue
point where the wire will fail first.
Of course, that does presume you have the correct crimp tool and you
are using the proper terminal for the size of wire.
(This information comes from having wired aircraft.)
Brian Lloyd
Granite Bay Montessori School 9330 Sierra College Bl
brian AT gbmontessori DOT com Roseville, CA 95661
+1.916.367.2131 (voice) +1.791.912.8170 (fax)
PGP key ID: 12095C52A32A1B6C
PGP key fingerprint: 3B1D BA11 4913 3254 B6E0 CC09 1209 5C52 A32A 1B6C
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