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
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