Check your new clip leads

[WQ9E]

In the final stages of repairing my Northern Radio NC-183D variant the sensitivity suddenly dropped but fortunately the problem was just the clip lead I was using to patch the coax to the receiver.  I picked up a bag of clip leads from MPJA a couple of months ago and found they are all made (in China I suspect) by stripping about a quarter inch of wire and then folding it back under the still insulated part and lightly crimping the folded section in place.  The crimp fingers were not even noticeably bent so it wasn't much of a physical or electrical connection.  I checked and both ends were the same and checking the other leads I found they are all the same.  The least bit of pressure would pop them loose and even in place the connection would be dubious.

I spent a few minutes and soldered the wires to the clips and now they are all fine.  The clip jaws are much better than those on some I picked up at a hamfest a couple of years ago.  These provide good clamping pressure and don't seem to bend easily.  This is not a slam against Marlin P. Jones as I have purchased a lot of stuff from them and I have been happy with it.  Unfortunately these leads are typical of much of what pours out of the far east these days.   I kind of miss the old good/better/best that Sears, Radio Shack, and others used to use for pricing stereos, appliances, and other product.  I would happily pay more to move from the "good" to something that is actually decent quality.

[K9PNP]

I know what you mean.  Picked up a package of clip leads for cheap at a flea market a few years ago.  Was working on a signal generator that supposedly didn't have any output.  After I finally checked the clip lead I was using, found that it had no continuity.  Checked the ends and found that, unlike yours, mine was crimped too tightly.  Smashed is probably the word for it.  Had cut the wires when it was crimped.

[WQ9E]

Mitch,

It sounds like mine were made after the factory supervisor yelled at the worker for using too much force when he made yours.  Maybe whoever buys a set next year will get a good set right out of the bag once the worker calibrates the precision chop sticks he is using for a crimping tool

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I make my own.
I have a roll of multi-colored flat cable. Cut a length off; separate the various colored wires; attached the clips with or without boots


Made in the U.S.A.

[W1TAV]

My OM (the original W1TAV) used to beat into my head "test your test equipment".  Fast forward to the 1980's I was attending the Bell System Technical Institute and the instructors used to deliberately provide you with jumpers  crimped on the insulation. Rarely was I ever caught by this trick...   

Sad as it is, these Chi-Com products are here and the OM's words ring even truer today!

[Jeff W9GY]

Oh yes!  Been fooled by the open clip lead syndrome more often than I'd like to mention.  If I find one, it goes straight into the round file.  I have been known to make my own, too. 

[steve_qix]

This is not unusual.

EVERY clip lead I buy (and I literally have hundreds of them), I clip the clips to a piece of #10 wire and pull back the boot.  If it's not soldered, I solder it.

The older Radio Shack clip leads weren't soldered, so I would have to solder them all.  The more recent Radio Shack clip leads I've got are soldered, but check them anyway - you never know.

Sometimes I make clip leads, but only if I need a real heavy wire (I've got some around here made with #10 stranded).  Even with soldering them, it's less time than making leads from scratch - at least when you use as many as I do 

[W1RKW]

I make my own.

Ditto.

[wd8das]

I once heard of a guy who when he was finished working on a prototype, or completed a repair, would cut the alligator clips off the clipleads and solder the wires into the circuits.  Someone suggested he should buy some hookup wire and stop destroying all the clipleads, but he claimed that he knew those particular pieces of wire in the clipleads worked so he would keep using them.

sigh...

Steve WD8DAS