# Huawei 3G telecom equipment



## lanfear (May 25, 2021)

Hey guys.
I finaly got my hands on som telecom equipment. I was a bit disspointed with the gold potential. Not many chips, but alot of big mlcc. What I am wondering about is some parts in one of the modules. Il first post a picture of the modules. I got this online because I dont have picture at the moment. So this is just for reference.



And the pieces I am wondering about



By the feel of the weigt I was thinking silverplated aluminium, but they are also pretty magnetic. Could that just be the nickel planting?

Jon


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## g_axelsson (May 25, 2021)

So you got your hands on a number of antenna filters. Yeah, solid aluminium body and silver plated. Some I have opened up are copper plated, very annoying after removing all those screws. :lol: 

The filter elements (flanged tubes) can be brass, aluminium or iron with silver plate.

I get these for free from a friend that works with switching out broken ones so I see all different kind of models.

Göran


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## lanfear (May 26, 2021)

Thank you Göran for the information. Yes I was expecting something really good after those srews. Must have bin close to 100. I am probably not going to mess with those flanged tubes. I was hopping they would be aluminium, but they are some strange mix alloy. They have Iron and im shure I saw some copper when I cut one. I dissolved 1 in nitric.



Do you know Göran if this silver plate on the UFO's are woth going after? They look shiny, but thats probably a bad thing


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## lanfear (May 26, 2021)

But today I am a happy camper. I got a server unit from the antennas







View attachment 2


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## g_axelsson (May 27, 2021)

You need a better way than dissolving the silver plated iron in nitric acid, it will get expensive fast. I've just stockpiled it so far. It's easy to sort in different base metals. Aluminium by weight and the rest with a magnet in brass or iron.

Some time I'll test with a sulfuric deplating cell but it was a while since I had one running.
Cyanide would work for the iron plated ones. Both methods are quite dangerous so the question is, is it worth it?

To get a good silver plate you often start with a copper strike to get a good surface for the silver. That's the reason you can see copper under the silver.

Göran


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## lanfear (May 27, 2021)

Thank you for your input Göran. I have desided not to mess with the silver plate. I dont have the space for so much stuff, and as you say I have far better uses for my nitric. I really wanted to try refine the casings, but they are heavy and big. I got this stuff for free, and today I got 7 more boards, and they had the type of plating I like. The cpu is just for reference. Do you think it is ENIG?


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## g_axelsson (May 29, 2021)

I really don't know how heavy the plating is on these RF boards, but since you have nitric, just put a drop on the surface and watch the result. ENIG is a bit porous and would break down easily into tiny flakes and particles of gold while heavy plating could stand up to the acid quite good. If you have a deep scratch on heavy plate the acid will dissolve the copper trace and leave the foil still attached to the remaining trace.

My guess would be thicker than ENIG to stop any corrosion but thinner than gold fingers, there is no wear to protect against.

Göran


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## lanfear (May 31, 2021)

Nitric. Why didnt i think of that :roll:

Look like you are right Göran. Took 4 runs with nitric drops to get them loose, so alot of copper.


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## g_axelsson (May 31, 2021)

Looks like ENIG to me.

Göran


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## lanfear (May 31, 2021)

My macro lense is probably to good. Here is a known ENIG for comparrison.



This took 2 drops of nitric. After 5 min this was the ressult.

I will process these RF shielded boards seperatly because of the size. So I can post the results then.

Thanks for your help with this Göran. I apreciate it.


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## lanfear (May 31, 2021)

I should have done them side by side, but I cleaned the RF board to remove the nitric. Here it is without flakes


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