On Mar 29, 2008, at 7:10 AM, Howard Winter wrote: > SMA just seems so fragile - I have a Kenwood handheld transceiver = > that uses it for the antenna, and I think that's a daft choice. One = > day I'll catch the antenna on > something and snap off the connector, I'm sure. And it's unreliable = > - I can screw a cable or the antenna itself in place and find it's = > not actually making contact for > no obvious reason. They seem to have to be screwed down a long way before the center pin = makes contact. And agreed, I'm always feeling like I'm going to snap = them off the radios. Never felt that way with BNC's on top of the = hand-held. The commercial HT's I have around here don't use either SMA or BNC, = they have their own proprietary stuff, usually where the antenna = screws down into the rig, instead of the rig having a protrusion that = goes up into the antenna. Since most of those rigs get used by = firefighters, cops, and folks that generally beat the crap out of them = -- I have a feeling there's a reason for the odd-ball connectors and = custom antennas. :-) I always wonderd if I dropped them on their antennas from a height if = the antenna would snap off inside the rig, but the couple of small = drops they've taken have bent the antennas instead... no apparent = damage to the connector or passed through to the interior of the = radios in any way. The poor UHF stub on one of the GE handhelds has = taken a beating, but seems to be surviving with little kinks in it. It was also a challenge with those custom antennas to find antennas = for the rigs that were cut to the ham bands, for whatever that's worth = on most rubber dummy-loads. But I eventually did for all of them. = Had to hunt old GE manuals and things, looking for the part numbers, = and then found a NOS place that had a few of each. I bought out their = stock, to be honest... two of each... just in case. The rigs and = antennas have outlasted at least one set of NiCd now... and work great = still. Public Safety radios are built like tanks. (These are GE MP/ = A's, and one Thales radio. Also have Icom, Kenwood, and Yaesu = "Amateur grade" HT's between me and my wife, and they all have SMA = nowadays.) >> So-called "UHF" and mini-UHF are trash, but commonly seen on >> various 2-way radio gear. Annoying that the manufacturers won't = >> spend >> another buck on N-connectors. Size-wise, it usually doesn't matter >> that much to the physical design characteristics of the back panel. > > Yes, that gets right up my goat too - a dual 2m/70cms radio with a = > UHF connector is just senseless, and thouroughly annoying when = > you've spent =A3/$hundreds on it . > Interestingly, Kenwood's latest TM-D710 has an N connector on its = > European version, but a "UHF" on the American one. I presume = > because over there people are > used to it, and would object to an "unusual" connector? I have no idea why hams over here are sensitive to N-connectors. = Everyone I know that does any serious RF work uses them, but rigs keep = coming out with UHF. To hear that a manufacturer is even putting N on = models for other countries now and avoiding doing it on US models, is = annoying. > Have you successfully changed a tranceiver's UHF for an N? I'd like = > to do so on one of my Alincos, but I'm nervous about trashing it. No. Not unless you count the repeaters I work on. Some of the GE = MASTR II Stations had UHF, and those were pulled off and pitched in = the ... well, they're in the junk box... I can't throw anything like = that away (those RF rated RCA connectors GE used with silver plating = are utterly STRANGE, but they work... I guess. I always pinch them = with needle-nose pliers and tighten them up). > Back onto topic: for 12V power, I love Anderson Powerpoles. Once = > you've bitten the bullet and bought the crimper they're a doddle to = > fit, and I now have all my > stuff so fitted. I've also built up a range of adaptor-cables to = > other 12V connectors (lighter plugs and sockets, coaxial DC, and so = > on) so I can usually use a new > device before I get round to cutting off its current plug and = > fitting the powerpoles (say in the car park at the hamfest where = > I've just bought it) - or if it belongs to > someone else, of course! :-) Yep, same here. For a long time I was one of the skeptics, no = mechanical locks HAD to mean they'd disconnect easily, didn't it? But = when I built the first VHF and up Rover station into the Jeep = temporarily for June 2006, I realized I had no choice... too many = types of power distribution would drive me crazy... so I did like I = always do and bought GOOD tools for the job, real Anderson power-poles = and not some cheap knock-off, and a good crimp tool, and went to town = changing everything. Driving dirt roads in a Jeep for miles, I only ever had one pop out, = and they're mounted VERTICALLY on the wooden rack that holds all the = rigs in the passenger seat for these insane outings with a 12' mast on = the bumper hitch, and directional antennas for 50 MHz, 144 MHz, 222 = MHz, 432 MHz, 902 MHz and 1.2 GHz. Now I put Powerpoles on everything. They're not perfect, but you can = build a silly little "locking" device out of small wire through the = pin-holes in both sides, if you want to, and they really do seem to = work fine. I do NOT trust them in high-current applications at remote = sites, however... they're made to be a "wiping" mechanism, so I only = use them on things I can un-plug and plug back in, once in a while... I have a feeling that corrosion or other problems might plague them = say, in a repeater power amplifier application -- but we're going to = try some of the big ones and see how they go. We were using a custom = connector that's unobtanium now (the connector on the GE MASTR III -- = Yes, MASTR "3"... not II "2") power amplifiers, but that connector has = become impossible to find without paying an arm and a leg for them. > For multipole connections I use either D-types, or full-size DIN - = > they can be aligned by feel and are pretty easy to handle. I hate = > mini-DIN as I find them very hard > to align by feel, especially the 8-pin ones, and they are really = > fiddly to solder to. Where I've had to use them (the PC connections = > on the Kenwood radio I > mentioned above) I've bought a cable with plugs on either end, and = > cut it in half to fit my own connectors (D-9 in this case). I don't know WHAT I like for that kind of thing. I still think I'd = like to find a way to use something like the MagSafe power connector = on my MacBook for truly mobile/portable stuff. Those things are cool, = and supposedly they've been common on appliances in Japanese kitchens = for many years... wonder if there's a good place to buy small ones in = small quantities that wouldn't break the bank? I bet they're a bugger = to solder to, though. Always a nice feeling when I trip over the = laptop power cable and it just pops off the laptop instead of sending = it crashing to the floor, which has happened multiple times with the = work laptop (IBM/Lenovo). Most of the time I just use whatever the device has, but DB-9 is = common for "quick and dirty" stuff, since I have a small stockpile of = both male and female around. I have another small pile of DB-25s = around for higher-density needs... but they both seem so outdated in = the "USB world" these days... but they're everywhere, and I can always = slash up a cheap cable to "fix" anything... something to be said for = "availability". You probably know what I'm talking about here, but most "consumer = electronics" folks won't see this... but the proliferation of all = these odd-ball connectors on Amateur rigs (especially HT's) lately is = quite annoying. My most recent purchase was an Icom IC-91AD and I = *specifically* picked the 91 over the 92 because of their use of that = strange-assed water-resistant connector on the 92 for the mic/data = connections to the rig. I don't need a water-resistant rig 99.99999% of the time, and having = to pay $40 or more for a cable to connect to such a rig for a serial = connection for either low-speed data transmission or radio programming = purposes, is utterly annoying. Communications radio manufacturers = seem to have taken that right from the (broken) cell phone industry's = playbook. Strange connector, sell a cable for $50, Profit! Bad... = boo, hiss. The little rubber caps to keep dirt and some moisture out = of the holes on the IC-91AD are fine for me! Even those connectors = are odd-ball small sized multi-ring tip and ring type connectors, but = at least you can find them mail-order! -- Nate Duehr nate@natetech.com -- = http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist