[Elecraft] K3 just goes off - SOLVED

[Fred Townsend]

Rick I use Teflon wire for my battery leads. Teflon wire is silver plated.
The Anderson power poles are silver plated too. While I can not quote
chapter and verse most NASA applications require crimp (with certified
crimper). There are at least two reasons. Solder wets and runs within silver
braid very quickly so the solder runs into the insulated part of the wire
and causes brittle fractures inside the insulation. Also the solder and flux
can get into the power pole contact area and increase contact resistance.
Flux has been known to flow out of solder connections years after
installation. The flux flows when the contact heats. The two effects have
been known to cause thermal runaway. Yes crimp is better than solder
especially for high power DC. 
BTW most silver bearing solders the most common being Sn96Ag4 (not to be
confused with silver solder) carry at most 4% silver. That doesn't offset
the other 96% being a poorer conductor than copper.
73, Fred, AE6QL.

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Rick Bates
Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 5:59 PM
To: Ron D'Eau Claire
Cc: <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 just goes off - SOLVED

And if one uses silver based solder?

Nope I don't and won't until I need to resupply; which will be quite a while
from now. 

Rick wa6nhc

Tiny iPhone keypad, sorry for typos

On Jun 24, 2012, at 4:21 PM, "Ron D'Eau Claire" <ron at cobi.biz> wrote:

> Does anyone have actual measurements to indicate that one is 
> *significantly* better than the other?
> 
> Solder may not be as good a conductor as copper, but we're talking 
> about a fraction of a millimeter of solder covering the entire mating 
> surface of the cable and connector through which the current flows.
> 
> IMX working on electronic systems we chose crimping over solder 
> because crimping is faster than soldering. Even so, I have found that 
> it is as easy to do a bad crimp job as it is to do a bad soldering job.
> 
> 73, Ron AC7AC
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> 
> A properly done crimp is better electrically than solder. For one 
> thing, solder is not a very good conductor. A proper crimp is actually 
> a weld joining the wire to the terminal.
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> 
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