I assume all you have read this thread so not going to repeat all prior e-mail in my post.
First off only place you will find PL259/SO239 "UHF" connectors is on ham, CB and some marine radio equipment made today. Commercial radios long have gone to other connectors with N-connectors being favored for VHF+ site located systems. Mobiles and HT's have a variety of connectors from BNC, TNC, mini-UHF, RCA-phono (gawd awful), sma and a whole host of tiny specialty connectors used on wireless stuff, smart phones, etc. In my professional life I moved most cabling to either N or BNC vs UHF. This was for reliability. BNC were normally used on RG-58 cable jumpers and lower power stuff where measurements were frequent requiring cable removal. The use of pliers to tighten connectors had gotten too many folks in trouble due to "super mechanic" mentality that if tight is good tighter is better. Sorry these are not water or gas lines. If you use a plier to tighten only rotate 1/8 turn beyond finger-tight. I can see wanting to do this on antenna connections or mobile installations where vibration is possible. Use of heat-shrink over the connector will result in longer reliability (also because it is now wx tight). BTW I have measured improvement of half a dB at VHF+ by proper tightening of N connectors. At HF this is probably not even noticed but on receivers at UHF it will make a difference. Sma connectors are particularly susceptible to inadequate tightening but again should only be tightened with a sma wrench with 1/8 turn or by proper torque wrench according to the mfr's specs. Sma do not like repeated removal and installation so be careful with that. I find the threads in N connectors wear if removed too much and work much better the first or few times. Impedance match on low noise preamps is critical so many hams are moving to use of either N or sma connectors over BNC. I have not seen a UHF on a preamp since the 1960's. Finally, my highest connector failure is with UHF on RG-58 size cable. I really dislike the critters for that. Crimp-style connectors also seem to have a higher failure if they are cables that are repeatedly removed (esp BNC). So that is my two-cents on the topic. 73, Ed - KL7UW, WD2XSH/45 ====================================== BP40IQ 500 KHz - 10-GHz www.kl7uw.com EME: 50-1.1kw?, 144-1.4kw, 432-QRT, 1296-?, 3400-? DUBUS Magazine USA Rep [email protected] "Kits made by KL7UW" http://www.kl7uw.com/kits.htm ====================================== ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
