BNC installation

On Jun 24, 7:52*pm, ContestID67 wrote:
Some comments;

1) Crimping is very much the way to go. *The heat of soldering (unless
you are very careful) can easily damage the dielectric insulator.
Invariably you are then left with a blob of solder that must be
wittled away to make thing fit. *Ugh.
2) The less expensive sub-$50 (but not dirt cheap) crimpers seem to
work fine. *Ratcheting type is highly recommended as they enforce the
correct amount of pressure. *The $200 units are made to hold up to
repeated use over years, something most of us are unlikely to need.
3) Male/Female versus Two Males with coupler (whoa!) - Stick with the
fewest possible connections. *Not only for the fact that there are
fewer things to go wrong but because each extra connection looses 2db
(rule of thumb) of your power.
4) While the boom is open, think about (if possible/practical/useful)
pulling extra air lines, coax, etc.
5) Test, test, test, test and test again before buttoning this up.
Get a professional to help out. *Well worth the expense. *Much better
now than later.
6) If you are on the scene of a boom break (I have), resisting with
all your might the temptation of cutting all the lines (air, coax) to
speed up the removal of the dead beast from the scene of the crime.
It is much better to try to take the time to disconnect things at the
cockpit end and pull them back so that any necessary splicing is done
in a easily accessible place.

Enjoy, John DeRosa

I'd raise that price limit a bit, the $50 crimpers I've seen will
not be able to crimp tight enough to achieve a proper connection. Will
it work most of the time. Sure. But I'd not want them in my aircraft.
The ratcheting type crimpers have enough jaw pressure to properly
crimp the wires (collapses a large % of the voids in the wire bundles,
creates cold welds). The ratchet makes sure you crimp it all the way.
And since many come with interchangeable dies once you need to crimp
more than one type of connector the total cost is not too bad. The
high end crimpers also have properly shaped hardened and polished
steel jaws that will crimp with high pressure without deforming the
connector.

BTW I like the Ideal Crimpmaster because they are reasonably priced ~
$50 for the bare handle with die sets ~$30-$40 each. Crimpmaster
handles and and a few dies are available at Home Depot etc. A great
web site with good selection of dies is http://www.mytoolstore.com/ideal/ide08-11.html

3M, Amp and Anderson also make great high end ratcheting crimp tools
for their line of crimp connectors. These are often ~$200-$300,
feature heavier duty construction, fine tuning of crimp pressure,
etc. Some crimp on connectors are more sensitive to others about
using the right crimp tool, e.g. some fully insulated spade/ring
connectors and Anderson PowerPole connectors.

Not that I think JJ was really posting to ask for any advice, ... but
I'd also not use a coupler. I'd just go inline M-BNC to F-BNC
connectors. It is never too late to cut the tail off again and do it
properly :-) Make sure they have gold plated pins for corrosion
resistance. I'd also put a sleeve of heat shrink over the connectors
to keep everything sealed from humidity/moisture etc. Some of the very
high-shrink type that fit over the connectors but shrink to the coax.

Darryl