[TowerTalk] F to UHF adapters

[Guy Olinger]

It is important to understand one's adapters.

An F connector in the outdoors absolutely needs help for sealing. Also the
female F connector has a built-in problem which is due to its diminished
size: the tongue which must connect to the pin in the male connector is
very small, and just because of physics, cannot withstand repeated
connection/disconnection before some fail to make connection. This is
exacerbated if the connector EVER EVEN ONCE gets water into it.

If one wants to use and reuse a female F to UHF male adapter, the best
thing for ongoing success is to lightly treat the female side with silicon
grease. Create a short, like one foot length, of RG6 with male connectors
both ends. Connect the cord to the adapter. Seal that connection and NEVER
undo it again. At the other end attach a female F to female F adapter, and
make your recurring connections to that end. If either of the tongues go
bad, throw away the female to female, and replace it with a new one, which
will have a new, unstressed tongue. The extra female to female (very
common, very cheap) is easily carried in a kit with analyzer, etc.

Quite some number of adapters, and some solderable connectors, have issues.
Just for one terribly aggravating example, the cheap male to female UHF
elbow adapters, which have an internal spring (yes, a SPRING) to make the
connection around the corner. These get old, heat up at QRO and make for
problems transmitting that are hard to find with an ohmmeter after the
fact. Amphenol UHF elbows have the male pin with screw threads on the
internal end, which screws into the center conductor to the female side. I
spent four or five hamfests glomming up Amphenol UHF elbows for a lifetime
supply. Never had any trouble since.

Cheap and convenient can sometimes cost one big time. Caveat Emptor.

73, Guy K2AV

On Sun, Oct 2, 2016 at 1:45 PM, N2TK, Tony <tony.kaz at verizon.net> wrote:

> Hi Kelly,
> With the F connector it is easier to pull the cable through the conduit, if
> I need to. But that is about it.
> N2TK, Tony
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ve4xt at mymts.net [mailto:ve4xt at mymts.net]
> Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2016 1:17 PM
> To: N2TK, Tony <tony.kaz at verizon.net>
> Cc: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] F to UHF adapters
>
> Hi Tony,
>
> I'd suggest you're best off going with Plan B.
>
> While I'm not a connector conspiracy theorist saying every adapter is evil,
> if you don't need an adapter, what's the upside of using one?
>
> 73, kelly, ve4xt
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> > On Oct 2, 2016, at 11:56 AM, N2TK, Tony <tony.kaz at verizon.net> wrote:
> >
> > I use RG6 with male F connectors on my receive antennas and 80M 4-sq.
> > At the Comtek box and receive antenna box, both are covered but
> > outside, I use F-female to UHF-male adapters. Even though they are
> > covered from the elements they corrode and fail.  Could not find an
> > Amphenol adapter in their catalog.
> >
> >
> >
> > Does anyone know if there is a good quality adapter out there? If no
> > luck finding a good adapter I can always crimp on PL-259's.
> >
> >
> >
> > Tnx
> >
> > N2TK, Tony
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> >
> >
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