[Boatanchors] Solder Kester 88

[rbethman]

Richard, Those folks at HRO are also bent on selling 100 foot rolls of 
RG-8 and 100 foot rolls of RG-213 too!  All nice and pretty with fat 
price tags and connectors factory attached with heatshrink over them.

The braided junk that they sell will stretch for as long as it takes to 
work harden and become brittle.

The ONLY way I've succeeded in making the Copperweld antenna wire get 
"brittle" is to bend it back and forth in a short span some ridiculous 
number of times!

It doesn't stretch, and I still use it.  It has that brown appearance 
like an old penny.  Still solders nicely.

Bob - N0DGN

On 9/13/2011 4:14 PM, Richard Knoppow wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "rbethman" <rbethman at comcast.net>
> To: <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 1:06 PM
> Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Solder Kester 88
>
>
>> First, I'm not hunting any.  I've got more Kester 44 around here than
>> I'm likely to ever use.
>>
>> Second, I wouldn't bother with looking for and or buying the 88.  I have
>> found that hobby shops have a solder that uses a propane or butane flame
>> with its own liquid flux.
>>
>> I've been using one package for over 10 years.  I can solder 1/4" hard
>> drawn copper to 3/4" diameter Copperweld ground rods with no problem.
>>
>> I've also been using it to solder to long ago obtained #12 Copperweld
>> antenna wire that I got an entire roll of from Army MARS in 1982.  The
>> roll was heavy enough that it took the driver of the Yellow Freight
>> truck and myself to take it off the truck and to the front step.
>>
>> I'm still making dipoles and the like from it.
>>
>> Bob - N0DGN
>
>     This brings up something I find curious. The local ham store (HRO) 
> seems to think that stranded wire is the right stuff to make antennas 
> out of. I tried to tell them that it oxidized lots faster than 
> copperweld but was told that copperweld was "brittle" and broke. When 
> did the classic wisdom about antenna wire change? AFAIK the whole idea 
> of copperweld is that it is very strong and, if coated with the right 
> lacquer, is pretty resistant to oxidation.
>     This goes along with the "trivia" answers on QRZ.com, many are 
> plain wrong and no one seems to edit them.
>
>
> -- 
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles
> WB6KBL
> dickburk at ix.netcom.com
>

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|               AM Amateur Radio Operator    NØDGN                 |
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