Soldering my own cables?

[NoMSG]

I have a Dishnetwork box with two tuners; the box is in the living room where tuner 1 controls the main TV. Tuner 2 controls the video going into my bedroom and is connected by an antennae cable, resulting in crappy video/sound coming in through channel 3. A radio-signal remote in the bedroom controls tuner 2.

I'm planning to replace this antennae run with a left & right RCA for sound, and an S-video. With a run of almost 100 feet, I'm going to have to make my own cables. I found this stuff at Parts Express: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=100-544 and http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=091-1280

How difficult is it to make a good connection with this stuff? I tried making a long run subwoofer cable once by soldering raw cable to the RCA plugs, but it was mostly a disaster. Hope I do better this time.

Does anyone have any tips on soldering this stuff together, or perhaps an alternative I should be considering?

[markw]

Heck, you could even do your kids teeth with the proper tools and training.

If you couldn't do a simple RCA connector eith two leads, how do you think you'll do with an "S" connector with five?

Soldering ain't quite that difficult but don't expect to just pick up a gun and some solder and have great results. It is a learned skill and takes practice. Sometimes lots of practice.

For the RCA leads, I've heard there are crimp on RCA connectors. You might want to explore that avenue. Good luck with the "S" connectors...

The two most important things to remember when soldering are

1). The physical connection must be clean and solid before applying the solder. don't depend on the solder to hold the connection together. It only provides an oxygen free environment for the connection.

2) Don't just heat the solder and let it drop on tthe connection. You heat the connection, not the solder. The (cold) solder should melt on the connection (not the iron!) and smoothly flow over the connection.

Oh, one more thing. You don't need a heckuva lot of solder and don't move the connection until the solder hardens. A good solder joint will barely cover the connection and be shiny.