On Thu, 15 Apr 2021 11:17:04 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Adrian Caspersz wrote:
There was a time obtaining a solder type BNC connector was easy. The kit
of about 9 individual bits assembled with a solder iron and a spanner,
the choice of using 50ohm or 75ohm, different types to suit your cable
diameter. The warm feeling got when ya knew that the centre pin was
definitely soldered and none of the electrons would deteriorate on their
journey.

I've just been looking through Amazon and eBay, doing an RG59 75ohm job.

All I can find are crimp/compression/twist types. Horrible. That centre
conductor ain't secure.

What happened??

I doubt any of the plug in connectors inside your computer are soldered.
They will all be crimped.

Yes, 'now', but that certainly wasn't always the way (and I'm talking
in general now) and do you think they are now 'always better' for
being crimped, or simply that they may be quicker for the manufacturer
to make?

I believe there are some instances were crimping is supposed to be
better than soldering but that isn't because of the actual connection
in most cases but the environment (heat and / or movement of a cable
near a soldered connection etc).

It's also possible that the crimping process is easier to mechanise
but again, that's nothing to do with the final quality of the solution
(when both are done optimally).

As an aside, when I was racing RC cars, some drivers would *solder*
the battery wires into (and out of) their cars because *any* connector
(itself soldered or crimped) would potentially add both resistance and
unreliability. I did solder the speed controller directly to the motor
but used (soldered) 30A Anderson Powerpole connectors on the battery
(with a captive 'O' ring keeping the two together). Never ever had any
of them fail in use.

However, the whole soldering (or not) issue doesn't really cover
things where the density means that it's not easy (and so reliable) to
solder by hand, and especially where re high density IDC (rather than
crimp) connections are concerned.

You are less likely to find a bad connection where the crimp has been
made onto the insulation than with a connection that was designed to
cut through it.

Maybe if I was making up BNC connectors all day and had access to the
best components and tools available I'd use crimped ... but I think
I'd be looking hard for another job (having had to make 'batches' of
cables over my career) ... ;-)

Cheers, T i m