Every ham radio
operator has little tricks to help him do things such as installing a PL-259
coax connector on a piece of coax cable.
I would like to share my method.
First, I strip off about 1" of
insulation from the end of the coax cable with a utility knife (aka box
cutter). Then I take a cable stripper
and position it right in the middle of the exposed coax braid. Put your finger in the loop and make 4 or 5 turns
around the coax. You should end up with
about 3/8" of coax braid on the coax.
Now, get a small file and file off the
nickel plating from around the 4 holes in the barrel of the connector. I have found that solder does not like to
stick to nickel very well.
Before you begin this next step, make
absolutely sure there are no small wires sticking up near the center conductor
of the coax. If even one of those little
whiskers gets in the wrong place, it can cause a short in the coax if it makes
contact with the center conductor.
I
have a very handy little tool that a good ham friend of mine made which
consists of a PVC Tee and an SO-239 coax connector glued into the middle hole. Thread the coax connector on to the T with
the connector's bezel. Now carefully
stick the end of the coax into the back of the connector. Grab the T firmly with one hand and the coax
in the other and twist the T toward you about 11 times until you feel
resistance.
Now take the Tee off the connector and
check to see that you can see the braid through the 4 holes in the barrel and
check the center pin to see that the center conductor is poking through.
Now we are going to dab some soldering paste
on the 4 holes in the connector barrel.
You can use any little stick such as a Q-Tip with the cotton cut off the
tip to dab it on. This step insures that
the solder will flow down into the holes, creating a good seal. This step is important because if those holes
are not sealed, RF can leak out and cause interference to other components of
your ham station.
Next, we solder the center conductor to
the center pin of the connector with my Weller 200 watt soldering gun. I strongly suggest putting the coax in a vise
but don't tighten it down too tight. You
don't want to damage the cable in any way.
The vise will keep the coax from turning while you solder.
Now, we solder the 4 holes in the
barrel. Position the coax connector so
that the center pin is pointing to your left.
Now, position one of the 4 holes so that it is looking directly at
you. Make sure your soldering iron is up
to operating temperature, then apply solder to the tip while holding the iron
on the area just above the hole. Now
slowly drag the iron down over the hole and pull it away. If the iron does not completely cover the
hole, do it again. If you are
successful, repeat for the other 3 holes.
Let the coax connector cool off before removing it from the vise.
Next, we check continuity with a
multimeter set to the OHMS setting so that when you hook the two leads
together, the meter emits a beep.
Connect the black lead to the center pin and the red lead to the barrel
of the connector. If NO beep sounds, then there are no shorts in
the connection. If there IS a beep, you
will not be able to use that piece of coax.
You will have to cut the connector off and install a new one. The last thing you need to do is scrape the brown rosin off the center pin of the coax connector with a knife then shine it up with some Scotch-brite.
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