[TowerTalk] Junk Coonectors (was Re: How lossy are PL-259s at HF?)

[Jim Brown]

On 6/18/2024 6:15 AM, Rob Atkinson wrote:
> When shopping for UHF connectors at a hamfest, bring an Amphenol male
> and use it to test any connectors that have a UHF female involved.  Do

I consider this a fool's errand. The only connectors or adapters I will 
buy at a hamfest are MIL-surplus or Amphenol-branded, and they're sold 
by individual hams. I've probably used a hundred or more of them over 
the years, all bought in lots of 50 or 100 from franchised distributors 
as part of a group purchase that I or others have organized for clubs to 
which I've belonged.

For more than 25 years, I've served on the Standards Committee of the 
Audio Engineering Society, which includes representatives of major 
manufacturers like Switchcraft, Neutrik, Shure, AKG, Neumann, 
Audio-Tehcnica, Sennheiser, and Beyer Dynamic. (not Amphenol -- they 
haven't been in the audio biz for 40-50 years, which Switchcraft and 
Neutrik have dominated for that long). Over the years, I've seen many 
reports from some of them about counterfeits of their products. With 
microphones, the defects are sound quality; with connectors, they're 
failure to properly mate, dissimilar metals that you can't solder to or 
degrade with time, dielectrics that melt when you try to solder.

Yes, there are other mfrs of connectors, but I wouldn't go near them 
unless I was  a mfr who could vet the company, get samples, see their 
quality control. Years ago, W2VJN did that for some antenna switching 
products, and he got quality. Our chances of getting quality connectors 
are about as good as winning the lottery.

When I got back on the air in 2003, I was ignorant of this issue with 
ham connectors, and bought a lot of adapters to fill my junk box. Over 
the next 5-6 years, they caused me untold grief trouble-shooting the 
failures they caused in my station.

73, Jim K9YC