On 1/23/2018 10:29 AM, Walter Underwood wrote:
N connectors have better weatherproofing.
How does that matter for connections inside a weatherproof enclosure that mounts the arrestors? They also have the problem of cable migration from the connector.
They handle 1500 V instead of 500 V.
In 60 years of hamming, I've never seen a quality UHF connector that arced. Of course, I've never run more than 1.5kW, and I try to use antennas that are close to resonance. :)
But I mostly like them better because they are engineered instead of a historical accident.:-)
The technical superiority of N-connectors for use at HF is a wild exaggeration, to the extent of being an urban myth. Yes, there is a SMALL impedance difference at a junction, but it simply doesn't matter at 6M and below, both because the difference in Zo is relatively small, because the length is small as a fraction of a wavelength, and because as frequency increases, small mismatches are reduced by the loss in the feedline (and NOT loss due to mismatch).
There is, of course, a FICTIONAL loss called "mismatch loss," which shows up in the lab with test equipment that is carefully engineered to have 50 ohm output Z. But the output Z of real world transmitters is rarely 50 ohms -- it's usually a lot lower. Funny -- because it isn't real, we didn't learn about it in our transmission lines classes back in the '60s.
What matters a lot more is the QUALITY of the connector. Smart hams don't use el-cheapo, non-branded connectors. Except for receive antennas, I use only soldered Amphenol 83-1SP connectors and mating Amphenol jacks and Amphenol adapters.
73, Jim K9YC ______________________________________________________________ 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]
