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[AMPS] stupid question

To: <amps@contesting.com>
Subject: [AMPS] stupid question
From: W8JI@contesting.com (Tom Rauch)
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 12:37:17 -0500
> Is the 'RCA' connector the same thing we call a 'phono plug'? The type

RCA connector is something that has crept into common usage. I 
don't know where it came from, it has gradually appeared. Many 
names are like that.

There are is a special type of plug that looks like a phono plug but 
isn't a phono plug. The standard phono plug that every domestic 
manufacturer (GE, Philco, Magnavox, Motorola, RCA) used for 
phono applications, and an extended-tip-male recessed-center-
female used by Motorola for RF applications. 

The Motorola plug would sometimes bottom out in a standard 
phono connector and not seat. I remember cutting the tips off about 
1/4 inch when swapping GE equipment into something built for 
Motorola RF decks, and having to solder standard phono plugs into 
Motorola gear like low-pass filters for 150 MHz. 

The phono plug comes up short of a good fit in Motorola RF jacks, 
like those used on Motrac and Motans other two way radio gear. 
They will work, but barely.

Of course the early Motorola mono and stereo record players used 
standard phono connectors.   

I think part of the name change was become non-technical people 
buying parts confused phono and phone, which are two different 
connectors. (The phone connector was originally called a telephone 
connector.) Headphone jacks on our radios use (tele)phone 
connectors. 

> of connector used on the Heathkit HW101 antenna connector, and I
> believe, either the KWM2 antenna connector or the 30L1 input connector
> - not sure which.
 
Heathkit uses a phono plug, I'm not sure if the Collins is a standard 
phono or Motorola-style plug.

I recently got into this when I told a new person doing a layout to 
change a plug to a phono plug, and it arrived with a phone plug. 
The old engineer knew the difference, and even knew what a 
Motorola plug was. The youngster had no clue. He thought the 
phono plug was called a RCA and the phone plug was a phono.


73, Tom W8JI
W8JI@contesting.com 

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