[Elecraft] OT: SO-239 Connector Selection

[Jim Brown]

> SO-239 / PL-259" connectors are not suitable.

WRONG! This is another myth, repeated and repeated until it becomes 
accepted. This is HF, not UHF. The impedance of the connector only 
matters when the frequency is high enough that the length of the 
transmission line that the connector comprises is a significant 
fraction of a wavelength. Good quality UHF connectors (PL-259 and 
SO-239) are more than adequate for anything we do on the HF and VHF 
bands. We need to worry about the impedance of the connector at UHF 
and above. 

A brief anecdote. This spring, I made up a lot of RG8 cables for a 
DXpedition. As part of a final test, I hooked eleven 100 ft lengths 
in series and measured the loss. It was within measurement error of 
the specified loss of the cable up to 400 MHz. That was 22 PL-259s, 
11 barrels, and two PL-259 to N adapters to get to the HP generator 
and HP spectrum analyzer that I used to measure it. 

73, Jim Brown K9YC