Foundational Ham Skills

Every amateur radio operator, at some point, faces the inevitable: a wire snaps, a connector fails, or a new project beckons from the workbench. Whether you are patching up a weather-damaged antenna after an Ottawa winter or diving into a fresh homebrew build, soldering skills are an essential foundation for the hobby. It’s the literal “glue” that keeps our stations on the air.

With this in mind, Wayne (VE3CZO) recently led a group of 17 OARC participants (including two couples and one parent-child team) through a comprehensive soldering skills workshop. The sessions were designed to take the mystery out of the molten lead (and lead-free!) world, providing a hands-on environment for hams of all experience levels.

A Three-Part Journey

The workshop was structured over three sessions, moving steadily from the basics to more complex applications:

The Basics: We started with the fundamentals—soldering simple wires and learning the “anatomy” of a good joint.
The Right Tools: Wayne shared invaluable tips on purchasing new tools, emphasizing that you don’t need a professional-grade rework station costing thousands of dollars to get professional results, provided you know what to look for in a soldering iron and flux.
The Final Challenge: The series culminated in the task many hams find most daunting: soldering PL-259 connectors onto RG-8X coaxial cabling.

Ready for the Field

Mastering the PL-259 is a rite of passage. By the end of the final session, participants walked away not just with a finished cable, but with the confidence to perform field repairs. As we head into the warmer months and prepare for outdoor deployments and POTA activations, these skills ensure that an OARC member’s field day won’t be cut short by a broken connection.

A huge thank you to Wayne for sharing his expertise and to the 17 participants who came out to sharpen their skills. Keep those irons hot!

Upcoming Workshops

These upcoming antenna-building workshops will make use of your new soldering skills (click the links to register):