[TowerTalk] Fwd: Re: Most Connectors sold to Hams are JUNK

[Jim Brown]

On Tue, 20 May 2008 04:09:09 -0400, Roger (K8RI) wrote:

> I stand by the premise that were there not a market 
>for the cheap stuff few of this type of vendor would exist.  It's 
>unfortunate, but a large number exist who want to pay as little as 
>possible for "something good enough to work"

I believe that those who buy JUNK parts are doing so out of ignorance, 
not intentionally. I was inactive on HF from the mid-80's up to 2003. 
When I got back on the air and began acquiring radios, I bought a 
bunch of connectors to mate with the various accessory jacks on the 
back of my radios. I found the DINS at RF Connection, and bought 
something like a half dozen of each. When I tried to use them a year 
or so later, I found them to be junk. When I called to complain, I was 
told that hams only buy cheap and that they had no intention of 
selling anything different. 

I didn't buy these parts because they were cheap -- I had been off the 
air for nearly 20 years, and didn't know that the market had gone to 
garbage. But I got stuck with a box full of JUNK connectors. You will 
also find what appear to be the same or equivalent JUNK in the Digikey 
catalog. The ONLY clue is price. 

Thankfully, I didn't have that problem with the Molex connectors that 
I bought to mate with Ten Tec radios and power amps. 

73,

Jim K9YC