[UK-CONTEST] Connectors

[Dave Sergeant]

Oh dear, all the years old arguments from the anti PL259 crowd are 
coming out again.

Apart from the problems of soldering them, 259s are more than adequate 
at HF and even at 2m their impedance mismatch is peanuts. Years ago 
when I had access to decent test equipment I checked their performance 
against frequency and it was not until 900MHz that they became 
problematic. I would argue that it is far harder to properly assemble a 
BNC or N type unless you have the proper tools - and you certainly need 
the manufacturer's assembly instructions. Ready made up cables are of 
course readily available for patch leads, but sometimes those are of 
dubious quality.

I have my own technique for PL259s, which is to poke a twisted bit of 
braid through one of the holes from the inside and solder it to the 
shell - a good iron set at 450C is adequate.

My Elecraft K2 does have BNC outputs but that either feeds my longwire 
direct via a BNC-3mm adaptor or other antennas via an antenna switch 
(which has PL259s..). But there again I never venture higher than 10m.

73 Dave G3YMC

On 3 Feb 2012 at 10:43, Ken Eastty wrote:

> I agree, the best way to deal with ALL PL259's is to throw them in the
> bin!
> 


http://www.davesergeant.com