I've recently become about $20 worth of aware that 74 cent panel mount
F jacks from eBay are worth about zero cents apiece. They showed up
and were totally unmountable because the threads on the backside were
cast a millimeter or two too small. Even a tiny bit of tightening
broke them.
I found that the RF Connection stocked them too, figured they'd be
better and it turned out they were cheaper (oops!).
The RFC ones are MUCH better. The threads mesh properly and you can
tighen them onto the panel sufficiently but the first one I tightened
down popped in half from a crack that started in some internal voids
in the pot metal.
They're real cheap, so I didn't expect great things and they're fine
for antennas and experiments where I'm just going to tighten
everything down infrequently and don't need ultimate reliability, but
I'm building a motorized antenna switch that I intend on using for
years and wouldn't mind eventually replacing the cheapies with
something more substantial at a few bucks a pop for reliability.
So I could use brands or suppliers of good quality panel mount
F-jacks. I'd rather not find out the good and bad the hard way
anymore ;-)
I assume Amphenol has good ones... but it's hard to judge mechanical
suitability from the specs and I could use some opinions from people
who've actually laid hands on some of the connectors.
73,
Dan
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