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Professionally, I’m a retired professor of accounting and former chair of the School of Accounting at the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business. My academic work explored how people make decisions in complex systems, especially when information is imperfect or overwhelming. I’ve published in a fair number of journals that few people read voluntarily, and I spent decades thinking about how technology shapes human behavior. These days, my time is divided between managing a small flock of chickens, herding goats, chatting on amateur radio (KO4LMP), and living just on the edge of the grid—literally and metaphorically. I’m a father to five daughters, a grandfather to 17, and a great-grandfather to three. Somewhere along the way, I realized that what I enjoy most is simply talking about the world we live in—and how to make sense of it.

📻Why you shouldn’t solder the shield on a crimp connector

Note: For my 40-meter inverted V portable antenna setup, I wanted to put a female connector on the end of the coax after the ferrite chokes. However, I could only find a crimp style SO-239 or a solder version designed to be mounted on a chassis or box. Because I don’t have a crimper tool and no experience with these connectors, I asked AI about buying the crimp version and then soldering the shield instead of crimping. Two important points from the AI that I hadn’t fully considered are highlighted in blue font below.

Chat history

You said:

Can I solder a SO-239 Crimp Connector?

ChatGPT said:

Short answer: no—not the way it’s designed to be used. But there’s a nuance worth understanding.

🔧 What an SO-239 crimp connector is designed for

An SO-239 crimp connector is meant to be attached using a crimping tool, not solder.

  • The outer shield (braid) is secured by a crimp sleeve/ferrule
  • The center pin is often either:
    • crimped, or
    • soldered (depending on the specific connector)

So the connector is usually part crimp + part solder, but not solder-only.

🧠 Where solder is used

You can solder the center conductor (pin) if the connector is designed for it.

👉 Many “crimp-style” connectors still expect:

  • center pin = soldered OR crimped
  • shield = crimped only

⚠️ Why you shouldn’t solder the shield on a crimp connector

Trying to solder the braid instead of crimping causes problems:

  • 🔥 Heat can melt the dielectric (especially on RG-58, RG-8X)
  • 🧵 Solder can wick into the braid, making it stiff and prone to breakage
  • 📡 Can lead to poor impedance and higher SWR
  • ❌ Mechanically weaker than a proper crimp

👍 What you can do instead

If you don’t have a crimp tool, you’ve got better options:

Option 1: Use a solder-type SO-239

These are designed for:

  • soldering center conductor
  • soldering the braid through holes in the body

Option 2: Get a proper crimp tool

For ham work (like your setups with PL-259 / coax builds), this is worth it:

  • More consistent connections
  • Better RF performance
  • Faster once you get the hang of it

🧰 Ham-radio practical advice (based on your projects)

Given your hands-on coax work and troubleshooting:

  • If you’re doing field repairs → solder-style PL-259/SO-239 is fine
  • If you’re building multiple cables → crimp connectors + tool = best long-term
  • For VHF/UHF (2m/70cm) → crimp connectors usually outperform solder ones

🧪 Quick rule of thumb

  • Crimp connector? → Crimp the shield
  • Solder connector? → Solder both center and shield
  • Center pin? → Follow connector design (crimp OR solder)

If you want, tell me what coax you’re using (RG-8X, RG-58, LMR-400, etc.), and I can recommend the exact connector + tool combo that’ll give you the lowest SWR and longest life 👍

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