[TowerTalk] PL259 Insertion Loss?

[Jim Thomson]

Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:48:31 -0500
From: Frederick Vobbe <fvobbe at wlio.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] PL259 Insertion Loss?

On 1/16/2012 12:24 PM, Steve Hunt wrote:
> Fred,
>
> If you had 0.3dB loss in a connector I doubt you or the guy at the other
> end would hear the difference. But if you ran 1.5kW through it you'd
> probably smell the difference!
>
> 100w is a lot of power to dissipate in such a small volume!
>
> 73,
> Steve G3TXQ

###  If they had .3 db loss... they would be on fire ! 


Never even considered running anything greater than 500 watts through a 
PL259, to be honest with you.   I know they are rated for higher power, 
but I've never considered them as being the right connector for the 
application.

Fred/W8HDU

##  You can stuff 5 kw easily through a good quality silver/teflon PL-259 connector.
5 kw is only 10A of RF.  It's also 500 vrms/707 v peak..but only into a 1:1 swr. 

##  sure amphenol makes a good connector..but only if u get their teflon silver types...
and NOT their nickel plate junk.  

## peter mentions female SO-239's  on stuff like drake eq, lk-500's etc. That white stuff u see on drake
connector's  is NOT teflon, nor are they silver plated. 

##  all the telco's and cell co's  have now converted  from type N  to 7-16 Din.  Good riddance to type N.
If you want to see something silly.... check out  1.25" heliax..  with a type N connector on it.  Complete with
that stupid bnc sized pin.  Here u have a connector the size of a coffee mug...with this stupid bnc pin !    

##  as I mentioned b4.... on LMR-1200DB, 7/8" heliax..and 1.25" heliax...... you can only get 2 x connectors these days,
type N and 7-16 DIN.   Andrew, etc, stopped making UHF connectors  for 7/8"  heliax back in the mid 90's. 

##  I use silver/teflon pl-259/SO-239 in the shack only. All the hb amps have 7-16 dins on em. After that, everything downstream
uses 7-16 din, including LP filters, remote coax switch's, lightning arrestors, baluns,etc. 

##  and don't forget to use dow corning dc-4/5 on all the connectors, including threads, pins, and center females.  The 7-16 is clearly
the connector of choice for the bigger coax cables  [ it's ur only real choice].   For the smaller cables, like 213-U, and LMR-400, the
UHF QUALITY silver/teflon connectors are plenty good enough.  Type N for any size cable is a pita.  Odd ball connectors like C...and also
LC connector's are going out of vogue. 

Later... Jim  VE7RF