I think I’ve soldered my last PL-259. They are my single greatest cause of failure. Over the past month or two, I’ve soldered up a couple of new cables and re-did a couple. I got some of them right and some wrong. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years and I still make too many mistakes. Either I don’t get the solder hot enough to flow properly or (since I started using a hotter Iron) I melt the dialetric and jacket right onto connector, ruining a perfectly good plug. Soldering SMD is easier.
From now on, it’s crimp or go home. Either that, or I’ll buy them pre-made. I’ll solder the center pin but anything else is getting sqeezed. I have good ethernet and mini-UHF crimpers so I know this tool will cost at least $30 but will be well worth it. There’s nothing that soldering will give me that a good crimp can’t. I enjoy working with a soldering iron but I’ll keep it handy for the things I do well.
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