[TowerTalk] PL-259 - reuse or replace

[Jim Brown]

On 2/14/2021 1:37 PM, AB2E Darrell wrote:
> There's a couple good companies on there that have quality PL-259s, even teflon, and they are in stock.

I wouldn't consider using anything but Amphenol 83-1SP UHF connectors 
and their family of adapters. They aren't cheap, but I have had LOTS of 
issues with cheap knock-offs unbranded knockoffs. Those issues have 
included connector dielectrics that melt when you try to solder them, 
adapters that fall apart physically, flimsy construction of center 
conductors in adapters, intermittents that are hard to trace. There are 
cheap elbow adapters where the center conductor is a tiny spring!

The VERY GOOD low cost alternative is used vintage MIL-spec connectors 
with their part numbers stamped on them. They are of very good quality, 
and are the things I stock up on at ham flea markets.

I learned this the hard way -- when I got back on the air in 2003 after 
many years off, I stocked up on a lot of this stuff, and spent the next 
8 years chasing down the problems they caused me.

And don't get me started on the truly awful cable-mounted of connectors 
to mate w3th DIN-series accessory jacks of rigs from the big three JA 
companies. The jacks within the products are fine, but the junk sold to 
hams is junk -- pins made from metals that you can't solder to, and 
dielectrics that melt when you try to.

73, Jim K9YC