On May 8, 2009, at 8:17 PM, Chuck Kelsey wrote: > Like I said, mine were the smaller red and black ones. I believe 35 > amp. I > have never crimped them, just soldered. I believe they are > advertised as > being able to just solder if so desired. Maybe that's the problem. > > Chuck > WB2EDV
Chuck, See if you can find someone with the proper crimp tool and look carefully at the HEIGHT of the resulting connection. I, like others here -- but I was trying to stay out of it, since PowerPole discussions always lead a little bit to the "religious debate" side of things, vs. the technical -- haven't had ANY problems with PowerPoles, but I make sure the seller is selling the real-deal by brand name, and not knock-offs, and I use the big/proper crimp tool to make the connections. When you solder them, the most common failure/problem I've seen is that the connection stays as "tall" as the wire gauge, and if you can get a good look at a properly crimped one, they're "shorter". When the inner connector pieces are too tall, there's no "play" for the connector to "lock/click" into the internal spring, and there's no way for the spring to "push" on the connector, holding it together at the "hump". My opinion, anyway... I've used Powerpoles in my VHF+ "rover"/mobile station exclusively, and I've only ever had ONE disconnect during bouncy dirt roads in a Jeep. The PowerPole "bar" is mounted horizontally so that the connectors are ALWAYS hanging sideways, and the wire pulls on them, and they stay in fine for the weekend of driving... PowerPoles fall into the same category as anything RF or DC that Amphenol makes, I think. Lots of knock-offs, but only with the original Anderson product, and the correct tools, do they seem to always work fine for my purposes. Ask your vendor if they're using the real-deal, and not a knock-off, and get a look at a connection made with the big/real crimp tool. (Not even the little pliers that some vendors sell really do it right.) -- Nate Duehr, WY0X n...@natetech.com
