Alternatives to Soldering?

[Teny]

(Story)
I recently bought an Belkin TuneCast® II FM Transmitter
I bought it because I like to listen to my music while I drive, or in a car with my parents, and I must say. this thing is an POS. There are static everywhere, the reception is bad, it says it can go up to 10-30Ft, but I think it actually can only go 10in. Good thing I got it from Wal-Mart for $20. This is my first FM transmitter, my cousin got one from Target for about $10 (i think), and I couldnt hear any static while I was in his car with him,
So I was Googling, and I found some mods where people cut the the antenna wire (blue wire through the hole labeled "ANT" for antenna), and either get a longer wire or a little antenna, and re-solder it back on to increase the reception.
Of course, this is kind of against the FCC, they were the only who made the reception bad because of radio pirates.

(What I want to do)
The reception is so bad on this FM transmitter that the inference creates too much static to even listen when driving.
What I want to do was to open up the transmitter, cut the blue wire connected to be whats labeled "ANT" for antenna. Get a new wire, and an actual antenna, and solder the wire to where the old antenna was connected to, and attach the antenna at the other end of the wire, and mod the case a bit to make it all fit to increase the range.

(Question)
I never had any experience with soldering, and dont know anybody that knows how, and I dont own one, my friend has one, but it will probably take half a year to find.
So I was wondering if anybody know any alternatives as opposed to soldering.
Thanks

 

[Neodude1123201]

You *COULD* Try stripping the ends of the wires,twisting them together,and wrapping them in electrical tape,but soldering is the only way to do a proper job.

 

[Teny]

how much of a performance difference do you think there is between solder and the twist and tape?

 

[Neodude1123201]

You wont notice the difference,but it wont be as sturdy and slightly trickier (Depends on the size) and more chance of breaking the thing.If you do,you will need a soldering iron to repair it,wires that small are fragile.

 

[_-..zKiLLA..-_]

Teny soldering is way easy. especially on something this simple. go get urself a cheap soldering iron and a little of the solder and just try it out.

 

[rohan23]

It's really as simple as putting the edges of two pens together over a small circle.

 

[tom-knox]

It is incredibly easy to do and worth learning but in cases where i cant use solder i make a conductive substance from polycement and fine iron filings and bond the two areas together.

 

[PokerDegenerate]

you could always get a butt connector and crimp the 2 wires together. It will be more effective and cleaner than the twist and tape method and pretty close to the same effectiveness as soldering. Also very cheap your local hardware store will have them for like 10 or 20 cents at most. This is a LINK to what they look like if you haven't seen one before. But like I said you can get single ones at ANY hardware store...

 

[D-Lew]

Soldering is really easy and you can get an iron for like $10. I'd really recommend learning unless you really want to avoid it.

 

[Sinonymous]

I can't believe it you didn't know especially with your knowlege of video game consoles. Oh well. Buy a soldering kit with an iron, stand, flux, and some resin core solder your pretty much set. It's an awesome skill in the long run especially if you want to do mods on electronics.