[Milsurplus] Soldering

[Charlie L.]

I do a mixture of complete lead removal or leaving a pigtail to tie onto,
all depends on the complexity.  Working on a TCS IF right now where the
fixed ceramic caps are wrapped almost 2 turns around the lugs or post, one
I unwrapped, the other one I cut as it was too difficult to remove. without
damage.

The military avionics soldering school I went to 55 years ago,  the most
important thing was mechanical integrity and electrical connection, the
solder was to just hold it together.  For wires, you had to strip them
without breaking one strand, tin them, wrap them, and then solder them, but
then the  instructor would take his eye loop and look at the joint, bend
the wire, and it better bend within the right distance to the solder joint
or it was too wrong.  It all had to do with vibration. wires went on first,
and then components above that, they too had to have so much of a wrap
around. Of course a lot of gear back then was still point to point wiring
with terminal strips and terminal posts, a different animal today with all
circuit boards.   I have since learned that the FAA no longer allows
soldering connectors like BNC or N in aircraft cabling, they all have to be
crimp on now.  They must have improved that, since a crimped on connector
used to be a sure intermittent connection at some point in the near
future.  The NEA outlawed soldering a very long time ago except for low
voltage, like 24VAC control circuits, not because they did not like it, but
because the skill of an electrician at soldering varied from man to man by
a significant amount.

de W4MEC
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