All, I was involved on this thread very early in its life because I had remembered having a transistor radio that had a mono earphone jack which wouldn't accept a modern 3.5mm plug. At the time, I thought it was a 1/8 in. jack. The radio was from Japan and it was made around 1959. I suggested that I might be able to find one in my junk box.
Well, I went through my entire junk box, as well as a box containing earphones dating back to the 1930's, and found one plug (mono) that had a 2.5mm mono plug on it. Everything else was 3.5mm. Based on all of my searching, I believe that the old transistor radio actually had a 2.5mm jack, and not a .125 inch jack as I thought. I am also concluding that 3.5mm and 1/8in. plugs are the same thing since I have found no evidence that a .125 inch diameter plug has ever existed. If anyone finds one, please let us know! Mark KE6BB From: Josh Fiden<[email protected]> Sent: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 02:47 AM To: <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Line Out Jack I'm curious about this. If anyone has reference to an actual 1/8" connector, please forward off list. I don't recall them ever being anything but 3.5mm. My recollection is that 3.5mm and 1/8" have always been used interchangeably. I believe (guess) the discrepancy is simply that the plug originated as 3.5mm and 1/8" is the closest fractional inch (9/64 is unsatisfying).Checking specifications from one reputable manufacturer calls out sleeve diameter of 3.5+/-0.05mm for the plug and 3.6mm for the entrance of the jack. As with so many things, I'm sure there's no difficulty finding poorly designed/manufactured Asian parts that deviate.There's no such issue with 1/4" phone connectors. They are called out either as 6.35mm or 6.3mm, which is quite accurate because they originated as the fractional inch dimension.73,Josh W6XUOn 4/7/2014 7:11 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote:> 3.5mm and 1/8 inch are now the same thing - one place calls them 3.5mm > while others use the 1/8 inch designation for the same thing.>> Yes, it was not always so, but that was well before stereo plugs and > jacks came into existence.> The big issue now is manufacturing tolerances that might mean some > jack and plug combinations are tight while other combinations may > appear to be sloppy.>> 1/4 inch plugs and jacks are more tolerant of sloppy tolerances i.e > +/- 0.01 mm compared to 3.5mm is much greater than +/- 0.01 mm > compared to 7 mm (or is it 8mm?).______________________________________________________________Elecraft mailing listHome: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraftHelp: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htmPost: mailto:[email protected] list hosted by: http://www.qsl.netPlease help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.htmlMessage delivered to [email protected] ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to [email protected]
