[geeks] GPS antenna connector question

[Mike Parson]

On Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 02:53:48PM -0600, Dan Duncan wrote:
>> On Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 04:45:10PM -0400, Phil Stracchino wrote:
>>> You can probably just buy the bits from Radio Shack and spend five
>>> minutes with a soldering iron.
>
> On Tue, 12 Jul 2005, Bill Bradford wrote:
>> Do I lose geek points if I admit that I dont' own one, and the last
>> time I touched one was 15 years ago in high school?
>
> Umm... yes.

Definately.

> Has anyone used those new "cold solder" units I keep seeing on
> tv?  I read up on how they work, but I've never known
> anyone who actually used one.

Yup, Fry's had them onsale for ~$15 a few months back, picked one
up then.

It works, but not quite as quickly as they show in the commercials.  It
does heat up a lot faster than the plug-in variety (except for those
high-wattage ones like my grandfather had for repairing old B/W TVs).

The nicest thing I like about it is the built-in white LED in the tip
for lighting up the work area.

Nice for the quick-fix jobs, don't know that I'd use it for any real
assembly work though.

For the record, I've got 3 soldering irons, one of the gun-shaped,
probably 15 watt or so that I got probably 15 years ago from RS, a
butane powered one, also from RS, got it about 2 years ago, and the
"Cold Heat" Coleman unit mentioned above.

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org