I have been thinking about how dreadful it is to get a good solder joint without melting the cable or the insulation when attaching pl259 connectors. I have a system worked out where I keep a wet sponge applied to the back of the connector and use a monster soldering iron to heat them up quickly. It seems to be working, but ultimately these connectors suck. The sad part is, most equipment comes with SO239s from the factory. So all of your jumpers need PL259 connectors. If you have more than just a couple of radios, you could easily spend hundreds on jumper cables if you bought them all pre made.

I like to save where I can, so I bought a spool of RG8X and some connectors and have messed up a few connectors getting it right, but in spite of having a pretty good system for soldering them, I really wish they were a better design.


I like the easy on-off of the BNC connectors. I think they would make perfect jumper cables. But the issue is all of the station equipment would need adapters, or would need to be opened up and modified with BNC panel jacks.


Has anyone bit the bullet and converted all their gear to a different connector?

No clue on the different connectors yet I suck at soldering because my hands are not still enough to do it. Even simple shit doesn't work very well for me. Interested in something that is simple for someone like me.

Using N connectors here.

(1) Use crimp type UHF connectors, seriously. Actual PL259s should have been left in the 40s or 50s.

(2) I started down the changing connectors course once, and had to abandon ship. It's just not practical.

(3) Amateur radio should have standardized on the C connector way back when as an alternative to both PL259/UHF as well as N.

My station is nearly all BNC connectors.  Yes, it's a lot of adapters and I did buy the crimp tools to make my own cables now.  Sure does make swapping components and antennas a lot easier now, though.  

I'm only on HF, so use SO-239/PL-259 for everything but QRP, where RCA phono plugs and jacks suffice.

I've been soldering PL-259s since the '50s, so it's no big deal. A 40 Watt, temperature-controlled iron does the job.

If you ever crimp just ONE coax connector, you will never solder another. You will instantly be converted to a "crimper".

I'm using clamp or crimp style on LM-240 size cables and clamp on LMR-600. The connectors I usually use come with thick shrink tubing I put on for strain relief. And it has a sealant in it for weatherproofing and you can see bead around the end of the tubing.


http://nullbits.foxxz.net/albums/ham/IMG_20160530_145356.jpg


http://nullbits.foxxz.net/albums/ham/IMG_20160530_145619.jpg


http://nullbits.foxxz.net/albums/ham/IMG_20160530_145406.jpg


http://nullbits.foxxz.net/albums/ham/IMG_20160530_145731.jpg

Good thread! I don't seem to have much difficulty soldering PL259s, but it is more difficult than it needs to be.

I actually REALLY like the uniform BNC idea, and BigDaddy, I saved that photo. I'm in the planning stages to build a dedicated ham station desk, and have ben pondering on how to interconnect all the equipment. That patch panel idea looks simple and robust.

Again, good thread!   Jim...

Sometimes I'll R&R UHF connectors from equipment and replace with type N.

An example are Tait T373 radios.

A lot of antennas like the CushCraft Yagis come with female UHF connectors because the pin tail is robust and easy to make contact with their Gamma match capacitor -for instance.

In these instances I use a UG-86  or UG-83 UHF male to N female adapter.

There are high quality USA brand silver plated, mil spec variants and low cost imports that work OK.

Most of my work is low power and I'll adapt to BNC's unless there is an important reason to go with N's --such as interfacing to LMR400


Enter "uhf n adapter" in eBay's search argument and there will be a variety of genders and prices.


I haven't installed a UHF connector on a length of cable since the 1970's...  

Keep in mind that many amateur stations can exceed the power and/or voltage limitations of BNC connectors, particularly mismatched HF antennas used with tuners.

Most of my gear has Mini-U or N on it...some has BNC. Almost nothing that I still use has UHF.

As far as BNC goes, it's a decent connector but it is the biggest complaint manufacturers like Tait and Simoco have heard about their equipment. In a mobile environment, they have a nasty habit of  disconnecting themselves. Simoco has migrated their new SDM700 line to TNC while their SRM9000 (P25 P1/MPT1327) and SDM600 (DMR T2/3) lines remain with BNC. Tait currently offers most of their TM lines (which include P25 P1/P2, MPT1327 and DMR models) in either BNC or Mini-U (Tait also offers 40 bit ADP if you are curious to who they are trying to go after).

Infrastructure now currently uses a lot of N and in some cases BNC for receivers.

It's actually primarily only the US amateur market that is keeping UHF alive. Many European transceivers (even those from Yaesu and Icom) only utilize UHF up to 30 MHz and N on everything else.

BNC for me even if it's a UHF to BNC adapter, I learned by hanging around this group BNC is quick and EZ

Kekoa is my spirit animal.

My recent experience crimping some little SMA connectors is what got me thinking what a PITA soldering PL259s is.

 

IIRC, I've done a topic on this...

Very important....

Check your imported BNC's for a snug spring fit between the shield contacts inside the male BNC and the female barrel.


More often than not it seems there is NO good contact of imported BNCs.  Usually, NONE!

If you take a quality BNC to BNC barrel connector [preferably a US made Amphenol, or Trompeter, etc.] file off the bayonet pins and press out the guts...

You have a tool to quickly check the BNC male shield contacts.


A lot of the BNC made-up cables are defective and I've thrown a lot of imported cables and connector 'kits' away.

Words to the wise...

I've always soldered UHF connectors. I use a small rat tail file to bevel the shield solder holes which removes the cheezy chrome coating as well as thinning the area to be soldered. This helps get the connector hot enough for the solder to flow.
When I do RG-8 size coax, I also pre-tin the braid like in the photo.


Back in the 90's when I worked for a two-way/pager shop, we used BNC, N type and some larger Andrews connectors on 7/8 and 1/2 inch Heliax out at the transmitter sites. We used a torch on the Andrews connectors.

I'm dredging this back up, as I still like that BNC patch panel idea.

What are the RF power limits for BNC connectors? I know the Amphenol spec sheet says 500 volts max, but it gives no RF power handling ceiling, and I'm not smart enough to understand the correlation.

I did find this interesting conversion calculator:

https://www.eeweb.com/toolbox/rf-unit-converter

And it appears to say you would have to run 2,000 watts to approach 500 volts. But Gamma762, you indicate that mis-matched antennas exacerbate this relationship. What then is a "good practice" limit for BNC power handling? Gamma762?

Sorry for always being "that guy" with the dumb questions!

Thanks...   Jim

i'll save myself some typing:
https://www.google.com/search?q=RF+power+limit+for+BNC

ar-jedi

I'm not terribly fond of the UHF connectors, but they get the job done. Most of the problems revolve around designers putting them in stupid places, like between cooling fins on the back of a mobile radio where your fingers can't get in to turn the shell. At least on a mobile you usually don't have to worry about changing the connection very often, as lousy an excuse as that is. As far as the problems with soldering PL-259's, I've gone to crimped connectors. Even if it's just the crimped shield with a soldered center pin, that's much more manageable, although an all-crimp connector is much simpler to deal with in the field.

Handhelds however, I really hate SMA connectors. I've been putting BNC adapters on all of them, and buying BNC antennas to use, and a pile of adapters to connect them to base/mobile antennas. In the vehicle I have an antenna switch with a BNC jumper cable so I can use the HT(or any other radio) on the mobile antenna without having to deal with the impossible to reach between the fins UHF connector on the back of the mobile rig. I've used that before to take along the D710 I usually use as a base/portable to do packet/winlink from the car, and before I got the FTM-100 which does APRS I would plug in my HT that did APRS.