I really miss Radio Shack. You used to be able to run in and grab PL-259's and many other things and get right back to work. Now everything goes on hold while you wait on Amazon for 2 or 3 days.
West Marine has a good selection of pl259's in store. From cheaper to the expensive gold plated for corrosive environments. Also the mil spec rg213 and a couple other sizes
Great video, thanks! I'm not a ham, but I run GMRS in my race car and really wanted to shed almost 10' of cable after installing a new antenna. Never done it before, but this tutorial was *exactly* what I needed. Got it done and had a chat on one of our local repeaters ~50 miles away, through the back wall of my shop. I think that'll work just fine at the track :D
I've done probably a dozen PL259s since becoming a ham.. Never and never until I saw this video did I think to take off the outter piece and thread it on. It made a whole world of difference on my latest crimp.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I have always resorted to buying premanufactured coaxial cable. I recently picked up two spools of 30.5 meters of RG-8x and one 30.5 meter spool of RG-58A/U. They were free. I purchased a large bag of PL-259 ends. This video has helped tremendously. All stations I have set up have always had premanufactured coaxial cable installed. I can not believe I have installed and configured so many radio stations over the years and never knew how to put ends on coaxial cable. However, I am not an amateur radio operator.
Thanks for the excellent video. Started crimping BNC's a while back but wasn't sure about crimping PL 259's. You answered my question about the center conductor (solder). Bought all the stuff to crimp a year ago and now am replacing an antenna and feedline. So after decades of installing connectors the old way (always hated it; never really got a clean looking job) I'm looking forward to crimping. 73's Bill/KG6DZ
Hey dude, really loved this video, thanks so much for breaking it right down in detail. I run an LPFM Rock radio station. Being based in New Zealand, we are disadvantged due to location and were always having to import preassembled LMR-400 runs. Now I have a spool and stock of 50 crimp connectors. Not only is this a huge cost savings (assembly labor & shipping), but it also means I can fix anything on the fly now without having to wait weeks for a delivery. Love your work. This kiwi has subscribed. Rock on Mike🤘
Nice, I like to use anti-oxidant compound on the shield before crimping. I also check continuity and resistance on the cable once finished. Be sure to wait till its 100% cooled.
Thanks for the video! It's not rocket-science, but it has been many years since I've done it. Your quick and clear video gave me the refresher I needed.
@@hamradiotube I'm using RG8. Does anybody in this world know where I can get a simple wall feed through grommet to put it through the wall? They don't fricken exist on Amazon or E-Bay or Radio stores or NOTHING. It's rediculous. RG6 up the rear but no rg8. The most popular size in Radio.
I only use crimped plugs these days too. Good on bnc to rg174 for SOTA runs of light weight cables too, just sweat centre pin before crimping outer ring.
I haven't put on a PL-259 in years. I've heard good things about these crimp-ons. The problem with soldering was it was hit and miss with soldering the braid. Not hot enough and you risk a cold solder joint. A little too much heat and you damage the coax. Soldering the center conductor was never a problem. It's not always necessary to solder the center conductor. It's "preferable", but if you were out in the field where a solder iron was not readily available you could skip soldering the center if you had to.
One of your last comments was how you melted things when trying to solder - I don't feel so bad now. Soldering is something new to me - and I melted an N connector the other day. I am trying to build a 2m 1/4wavelength antenna out of coat hangers. I cannot get the vertical wire soldered to that chassis. Gonna keep trying. You put out some great videos. Thank you!! 73 K0JNS
There is nothing, in life, one can not fix without Bob Ross's approach and philosophy to life. The world needs more people with Bob Ross's and Mr. Roger's philosophy and approach to life.
Good afternoon Mike, what a great video. Over the years putting on pl-259 connectors was quite challenging. Especially when you had to solder the shield to the connector because I didn’t want to overheat the connector because I might melt the dielectric. But now since crimping is the way to go it just makes putting on connectors to the coax so much easier. With this information on this video I may want to start putting my own connectors to the coax now. But my thing is if I’m going to get the coax I’m going with M&P coax and their connectors. Again thanks for the info it’s always great to learn something new. WD5ENH Steve
73 Sir! Newish Tech here. This video was quite timely. Looking to get some PL259 and coax and do my own cables. Also need to get some Anderson Power Connectors and crimpers as well. Hope to hear ya on the air sometime. Gotta get my General though. Stay safe out there.
Lol, congrats on getting a Bing search top results listing for your oldest videos. Doubt you'll read this being so busy with M&P coaxial sales. I'm looking for any easy way to strip the foil shield from my Shireen cables.
Nice one .. well presented These are convienint for things like field and mobile but prefer the tighter screw /solder Also the one thing you forgot was to do a continuity check after fitting off checking for shorts and contact ... every coax lead should be checked before use . John vk3wr
I wish I did this a long time ago. Soldering is good, but too much work when I am helping coworkers or friends run coax. It has always been a hassle and now will be simplified
I could have used this about a week ago. Hehe. I went through 5 connectors, shorting every single one out until I realized my coax cutter wasn't leaving enough of the white casing on the coax...
I basically just bought a sailboat and need to replace a couple connectors and just found out that the ones I got from Amazon are just a tiny bit smaller than what I need, crimp sleeve won’t slide over white jacket. The inside is a little corroded but I have what I have. Guess I need to look at how much new wire cost but budget is getting thin.
I want to make some short coax cable chokes that can be added to or removed from longer coax lines. So, in addition to adding ferrites in the middle of the short coax, I need to put an SO-239 crimp on one end of the short cable and an PL-259 on the other end. Is adding an SO-239 crimp to the end of the short coax just as easy as what you showed in this PL-259 video? There are many videos of people adding PL-259s to coax, but very few videos showing how to add SO-239s, so that would be a great video for you to make. Two (of the few available) SO-239 crimp connectors available that I am looking at are the Lands Precision crimps at GigaParts, and the MOOKEERF on Amazon.
This may be a stupid question lol but I have a hydraulic crimper (12awg-2/0) always used for ring terminals etc but could I use that for pl259 connectors? Or do I need to buy another tool?
I'm new to amateur radio, and got my golden ticket two days ago, and I have a travel trailer prewired for coax connection can I use that for a base or mobile radio hooke up to a antenna and would I have to change out the interior junction box to fit plf259 connector I'm curious to know. KQ4HCU 73
Sweet. Won’t buy that stripper then. Looks like my Anderson crimped might work as well. Seems like I’m going to need too many crumpets if I keep going down this path
I tried making 3 and my radio doesn’t like any of them 😂 I said screw it and just ordered some pre made. If that doesn’t work at least I’ll know I’m not a moron but then that just means something is wrong with my equipment. I’m brand new to all of this and I’m hitting a wall at every turn it seems
Oh man thats a tough question. They both serve their purposes. I would have to say the compressions might be a bit better because of the gasket inside that could prevent moisture coming up and into the shield. That can totally ruin your coax. I’m 50/50 honestly.
Search "marine heat shrink" I'm guessing you're already done, but commenting for future people. Side note you will never use regular heat shrink again once you try it. Buy it by the foot and foot and thank me later.
I am. But it wasn’t always that way. People will need to know how to crimp a pl-259 until they learn the ways of M&P. It’s a slow process taking over the world you know?
@@hamradiotube Someone should really do a video on the best quality crimp on PL-259 for RG8X. I recently fell down that rabbit hole 🐇 🕳 and haven't found my way out yet. Amphenol? DX Engineering? Silver plated? Brass body? Copper body? Is RG8X so lossy that it doesn't matter anyway?... Thanks ‐N7JSX
@@hamradiotube that's not the same, but your example is basically due to the Webster's dictionary, where Americans adopted all of these shortened versions of words. It's not correct English, however with Americans generally being so ignorant, they believe their version is not only the sole one, but also correct. I also laugh at how you literally pronounce words, particularly of French origin. Even bogan Australians have a better grasp on the English language and it's roots.
@@hamradiotube I just realised that you're the same guy that will not amend or delete your video on the PL259 compression plug installation, even though I clearly pointed out a very important flaw in the process, ie. order of assembly. You are completely new to these plugs, myself, I have been installing them for over a decade. You must correct this, how many times do I need to ask this of you? You reply to me with some dumb arse, irrelevant American spelling, which is wrong, yet do not bother to reply with what is important. There's all these people out there now that have installed their plugs incorrectly, likely risking their equipment. Will you pay for that, you bloody ignoramus?
It's a silent "L" in solder. Other words pronounced with a silent "L" are: Calf, Half, Talk, Could, etc. etc. What's so difficult to comprehend? Different areas of the world pronounce things differently. Generally speaking, solder is pronounced with a silent "L" in the United States, no big deal.
