MOTM

I too have been a victim of overzealous coax soldering--
hoist on my own petard, as it were.
A suggestion for Paul S. that might save him & future kit builders
a bit of hassle is to add a little blurb in the toubleshooting
sections of the module manuals advising builders to make sure
none of their coax cables are shorted.

Just thought I'd mention it so that I could actually post on topic for a
change

tomr

I ran into problems when I soldered my coax cable inner conductor 
first, then with the inner conductor arching over, I soldered the 
braid connection.   Well, cuz the inner conductor was curved and it 
had a lot of pressure against the braid, it melted right through the 
inner conductor insulator and shorted when I soldered the braid.   It 
caused weird problems with my 800.

Now I always solder the braid first and make sure the inner conductor 
hangs loose and is not pushing against the braid when I solder it.  I 
solder the inner conductor second and quickly to avoid melting.  
Hence, no problems with that.

Andy 




--- In motm@y..., "klem klemmingberg" <klem_klemmingberg@w...> wrote:
> I too have been a victim of overzealous coax soldering--
> hoist on my own petard, as it were.
> A suggestion for Paul S. that might save him & future kit builders
> a bit of hassle is to add a little blurb in the toubleshooting
> sections of the module manuals advising builders to make sure
> none of their coax cables are shorted.
> 
> Just thought I'd mention it so that I could actually post on topic 
for a

> change
> 
> tomr

>I ran into problems when I soldered my coax cable inner conductor
>first, then with the inner conductor arching over, I soldered the
>braid connection.   Well, cuz the inner conductor was curved and it
>had a lot of pressure against the braid, it melted right through the
>inner conductor insulator and shorted when I soldered the braid.   It
>caused weird problems with my 800.
>
>Now I always solder the braid first and make sure the inner conductor
>hangs loose and is not pushing against the braid when I solder it.  I
>solder the inner conductor second and quickly to avoid melting.
>Hence, no problems with that.

Soldering miniature coax is is practically the only time I ever have to
resort to a heat sink. After twisting the braid together I put a small
alligator on it just outside the insulation. I've never had a problem since
I started doing this.


-- 
Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"