Best brand of adapters

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N5JMC

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I'm looking to buy a BNC Female to Mini UHF Male or a BNC Female to SMA Male. Which sites and brands are reputable and which should I stay away from?


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jim202

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Most of the adapters for sale these days are OK, but it depends on the use you plan to use them for.

If it is for just a receiver system, it probably doesn't matter. The small amount of loss that any adapter injects is minimal. You will be hard pressed to notice it. If you had the test equipment to measure the loss, it would be in the range of 0.1 db or so.

Now if your going to use them for transmitting, you may need to be concerned at the higher range of frequencies. By this I mean UHF and above. The material used for the center insulation is important at the high end of frequencies. It effects the SWR on the antenna system. The best selection is Teflon, but you pay for it.

As for brands, I try to stay neutral on the different manufactures. There are 2 that stand out, but again I try to stay neutral. Keeps me out of trouble that way.
 

N5JMC

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Most of the adapters for sale these days are OK, but it depends on the use you plan to use them for.



If it is for just a receiver system, it probably doesn't matter. The small amount of loss that any adapter injects is minimal. You will be hard pressed to notice it. If you had the test equipment to measure the loss, it would be in the range of 0.1 db or so.



Now if your going to use them for transmitting, you may need to be concerned at the higher range of frequencies. By this I mean UHF and above. The material used for the center insulation is important at the high end of frequencies. It effects the SWR on the antenna system. The best selection is Teflon, but you pay for it.



As for brands, I try to stay neutral on the different manufactures. There are 2 that stand out, but again I try to stay neutral. Keeps me out of trouble that way.



It will be for both receive and transmit. Just experimenting with the 2 antennas I have on my truck. My antenna for scanner has BNC end but is a transmit antenna. The one for my ham is mini uhf. So I'm wanting to swap them and see how they perform. The antenna for my ham is a Laird that is for vhf/uhf/800/gps.

When you say the best is teflon, are you referring to coax or what? The cable used for my truck with the NMO mounts is teflex. I can't find much on it other than it's a Laird product. Anyone know much about it or what it's close to?


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prcguy

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N5JMC

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Thanks for all the replies and info. Looking at amphenolRF and they have many. I have a couple questions if you don't mind.

1- why is the end of BNC Female so big and have the threads on this one?
http://www.amphenolrf.com/901-10384.html

2- of the ones at the link below, which should I go with? Is one on the list for receive only and if so, what tells you that cause I'm not seeing anything that stands out.

http://www.amphenolrf.com/adapters....2=65&adapter_side_2_style=81&cat=50&mode=list


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toastycookies

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Thanks for all the replies and info. Looking at amphenolRF and they have many. I have a couple questions if you don't mind.

1- why is the end of BNC Female so big and have the threads on this one?
Adapter, SMA Jack to BNC Jack, IP-67, Bulkhead, ARC, 50 ohm | 901-10384 | Amphenol RF

2- of the ones at the link below, which should I go with? Is one on the list for receive only and if so, what tells you that cause I'm not seeing anything that stands out.

RF Coaxial Adapters | Amphenol RF


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1. It's a bulkhead connector meant to go through a hole.

2. They are all for both TX and RX. The first one should work if you just want female BNC to SMA male.
 

KevinC

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Thanks for all the replies and info. Looking at amphenolRF and they have many. I have a couple questions if you don't mind.

1- why is the end of BNC Female so big and have the threads on this one?
Adapter, SMA Jack to BNC Jack, IP-67, Bulkhead, ARC, 50 ohm | 901-10384 | Amphenol RF

2- of the ones at the link below, which should I go with? Is one on the list for receive only and if so, what tells you that cause I'm not seeing anything that stands out.

RF Coaxial Adapters | Amphenol RF


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Number 1 is a bulkhead connector, not an adapter.
 

N5JMC

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Thank you both very much! They don't seem to have BNC Female to Mini UHF Male so I'll look around and see what I can find from other makes. May post what I find here to see if you all recognize any.

Thanks again all! Much appreciated!


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KevinC

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That will work for RX too? In your earlier reply you said them for anything RX so I didn't look there.


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Yes, if it involves TX (due to my job) I have to use precision adapters. But for most personal applications they are fine.
 

N4KVE

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Isn't everything made in China these days, including Amphenol? Most times I but adapters, they are in a bucket with 100's of others with no box, or sealed bag showing a company name, or country of origin. All the mobile radios I own now use mini UHF connectors, & I used to buy PL-259/mini UHF adapters, but now I just buy NMO mount/coax assemblies that come from the factory with the mini UHF connector, so I don't need any adapters. I buy the Motorola ones that come with the white teflon coax. These are marketed specifically for 800/900 MHz, & are low loss, and they work great on 900, & UHF.
 

Rred

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Amphenol set a pretty high bar for the entire industry. They also answer the phone, talk to customers, and support what they sell.

Any US manufacturer who has a plant or contract in China will tell you the same thing: If they supervise and watch over what's going on, the quality can be tops. If they don't pay attention...there's a tradition of sending the hairy barbarians the cheapest junk that they'll take.

Amphenol? You can bet there's someone watching what goes on, in any source they use.
 
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