SO-239 to F confusion

I am in the process of finishing my home made ground plane antenna and I used the whip of an old CB mag mount that still had the coax attached to it. I wanted to attach it to some RG-6 since it's inexpensive but i'm confused by all the different type of adapters out there. I've looked at some that appear to be F, but say SMA on them. I've also seen some that say RF on them. I found one that looks correct but is almost 5.00,which is fine if i have to spend that much but i'd rather not. So my question is: Is the SMA connector the same as the F connector associated with TV/cable wire? I'll show you two i'm looking at on ebay. First one is the one I know will work: 1x F TV Male Plug to UHF SO239 So 239 Female RF Coaxial Adapter RF Connector USA | eBay This one here, i'm not certain about:UHF So 239 Female Jack to SMA Female RF Connector Fast Shipping US Seller | eBay Yes I know one is a male and the other is a female, I plan to use a barrel connector if need be to attach the RG6. Thanks

An SMA connector is not the same size as an F connector. It is smaller and some portable radios use it as the connection for the antenna. Most scanners today use the UHF connector. You will generally fine a female UHF connector on the rear of most scanners.

The adapter you have shown as the first selection will require a male UHF connector like a PL-259 connector to go on both ends of the jumper between what your showing and the scanner. Plus you will need a female to female barrel adapter between the male on the end of the RG6 cable. One point to remember here if you do go to a PL-259 connector, you will also need the reducer sleeve that screws into the cable end of the connector if your going to use a short piece of RG-58 type cable.

I would suggest that you look around and see if you can find the right adapter so you don't have to go through the gyrations of adding so many connectors in series just to make the connection to the rear of the scanner.

Coax adapters are not always able to be found on the low cost side. You may have to pay upwards of $10 or $15 for some of the adapters being used today. The price will depend on what the adapter is and where you get them from. It will also depend on the material they are made of, what the plating is on them and the type of center insulator material the connector has. The best type of plating is silver to allow better solder connections to the body. Many of the special connectors will have gold plated center pins which will raise the price. So what you go after will depend on the frequency range your planning to use the connectors on.

Well, to clarify I will go from BNC female to F male on the back of the scanner. Then I was going to go from F to SO-239 to the antenna coax. I was going to do so by going from the RG6 to the RG58 by using the first adapter with a barrel connector for the F connector, which will give me the SO-239 so I can screw on my existing RG58 which has a PL259 on it.

If you are going to try and connect a standard SO 239 connector to an F type connector, then there is an adapter available.

And yes, they are $5-6 bucks. F-Type Female to UHF Female

Of course your best solution is a new piece of coax with the right plug on the end to fit the scanner - see if you can remove the old piece of coax from the CB mount - it's probably something horrible like RG58 anyway. If you have an F connector on the back of the radio then quad shield RG6 will do the job perfectly.

The coax is molded onto the whip and i'm not cutting it off. It is RG-58. I chose that CB whip for 2 reasons: It was long and sturdy and it already had a few feet of coax on it. Both of those reasons also make it much easier to make the antenna. I'm only going to be spending about 25.00 on materials to get the antenna hooked up. When I get more money I'm going to buy the Antennacraft ST-2 antenna. I just cant spend 50.00 plus materials.

Why not just put a male BNC connector on the cable. Or use a BNC male to SO239 adapter? Why use the F connector at all?. More adapters mean more loss, and the F connectors are high loss anyway.