PL-259 Soldering

Do you solder the coaxial shield to the connector body when installing a PL-259 plug? What are those holes really for? I’ve been installing PL-259 plugs onto coaxial cable since I was about 16, and I’ve never soldered the body of the connector to the braid.

I’ve not had any problems from not soldering the braid either.

Having said all of this, I’ve not tested a non-soldered PL-259 on a VNA to see how the connection is affected by movement.

If you are going to solder the connectors in this manner, I would imagine you’d need a huge soldering iron, or at least one with a nice big tip, and lots of heat capacity.

Anyway, we should be using N-type connectors. I think that calling PL-259 connectors “UHF” is a bit of a misnomer.