Hi Steve, Very interesting photo, do you have more from different perspectives? The soldermask 'dam' is a great example of a technique I used at another company. The 'coined' or flattened lead from the SMA looks to be pulled away from the solder joint... I would guess this happened after a thermal excursion, where the chassis expanded faster than the board and the lead literally pulled the SMA pin loose from the solder connection. I can't tell a lot from the photo because of the frosted Plexiglas appearance surrounding the top of the photo, but I have see this sort of failure before in similar situations... The solution to the problem is to strain relief the connection. We used a silver ribbon and soldered it to the pin and the board allowing it to flex to take up the CTE mismatch between the aluminum housing and the Duroid board. Hope that helps... let me know if I read the problem correctly... it was just a guess based on what it looks like to me from here... not being able to see the whole picture... Best regards, Bill Brooks - KG6VVP PCB Design Engineer , C.I.D.+, C.I.I. Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510 e-mail:[log in to unmask] http://www.dtwc.com http://pcbwizards.com -----Original Message----- From: Steve Gregory [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 12:35 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Wanted: TN's best-on-coax-soldering Sorry Everyone! My bad, I didn't have the thumbnail linked to the picture...but it is now. Try this link: http://www.stevezeva.homestead.com/files/SMA.jpg Just got in a hurry when I posted the picture. I'm trying to get all my loose ends tied-up here at work because I'm leaving this weekend for Christmas vacation. -Steve Gregory- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------