The AM Forum

Hi All,

 I recently purchased some PL-259 male,male connectors for an antenna project. When I tried to make them finger tight, they fell apart. It seems that they are held together by a weak brass, split ring. Junk!

Anyone have a source for quality male/male PL-259 connectors?

TIA, Roland..........

The 'gold standard' of connectors is Amphenol silver plated, with teflon insulator

Any of the reputable ham dealers will ensure that you get quality connectors, just avoid the cheapest ones.  You should be able to get good quality for around $2 each, or less.

Ham vendors:
HRO
Amateur Electronic Supply
Radio Works
JEFFA Tech (friend of mine here in Md.)
and numerous others

Parts houses:
Mouser
Digikey
Allied Electronics
Newark

Thanks for the leads.

The defective/junk connectors were purchased from a "reputable ham dealer" from whom I had made purchases in the past. These were no-name connectors. For all intents they looked robust but proved otherwise.

I will scope out the Amphenols.

I know its a pain to return such a small part but the reputable ham dealer should at least know that what they sold you was junk. They don't stay reputable selling stuff like that and if they were smart they would do something about it.

I have the luxury of having a lifetime supply of BNC and N connectors so I don't use UHF's unless I absolutely have to. I always hated the idea of soldering through those holes and hoping everything was alright inside and they are not waterproof. I have the same trepidation putting on a UHF connector as others might have putting on an N connector.

Could have been a bad batch.

Some well known names have that problem once in a while.

Sorry. I may not have been clear. It's a double male PL-259 adapter for joining two SO-239's.

Go here: http://www.therfc.com/uhf.htm

The import version $1.75
The Amphenol version $10.71

Definitely a big difference in quality and longevity.

To be honest that is an unusual adapter.  I've never seen one.

I use them to hang my Dow Key relays off the transmitters.

I haven't checked lately but Pasternack and Radio Works had these in the past.

I really try to stay away from adaptors...Usually cause a lot of problems

Fred

Far from unusual around here in UHF, BNC and N.

I orderd 3 Amphenol 83-877 connectors from The R.F. Connection. They are all beef. I would have a hard time killing one of these. Thanks Pete!

Roland.............

I've dealt with my share of "inexpensive" connectors whether being PL-259s or whatever. You get what you pay for in most cases.  I like to be able to desolder connectors if need be and the state of the art seems to Amphenol. They can take abuse.

I often wonder whether the cheapos meet design impedance characteristics.

www.rfparts.com

Hard choice $10.71 or $24.95 for the same part:
http://www.rfparts.com/83-877.html
http://www.therfc.com/uhf.htm

I've always been under the impression taht one of the disadvantages with a PL-259/SO-239 coneector is they don't have a characteristic impedance, which is why they are fine for HF but are horrible for UHF.

http://www.tessco.com/products/displayProductInfo.do?sku=28618&eventPage=5