[ICOM] What is wrong with SMA?

[Ed Senior]

Hi John, 

SMA connectors are now the standard in low-power UHF/SHF 
applications. Electrically, they perform very well.  
That's the good news.  

Mechanically, they are very small, thus not very strong.  
That's the bad news.  (Can you envision putting a stiff, 
3-foot-plus telescoping half wave antenna directly on your 
HT's SMA connector?  I can't.) 

In general, it's better to err on the LARGE side for chassis-
mount connectors, because it's easier and much more mechanically 
sound to use adapters that DOWNsize (from the chassis) than 
adapters that UPsize.  

But I think the big reason that people like BNCs is the 
SPEED with which they connect and disconnect--at least 10X 
faster than SMA (or any other screw connector that I know of). 
That is why BNCs are often used on patch panels, while SMAs 
rarely (if ever) are. 

All of the above applies fully to ICOM radios, Mr. Moderator!  
8-) 

Now here is a REALLY tough follow-up question:  
Why did the WiFi folks think it was necessary to come up with 
a REVERSE SMA connector?  Does anyone know the point of that? 
What if someone at ICOM found out about that, and decided to 
get trendy and put REVERSE SMA connectors on ICOM HTs?  ;-) 
Then you'd REALLY wish you had BNC!   

73, Ed, W6LOL


-----Original Message-----
From: John Geiger [mailto:johngeig at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 7:20 AM
To: icom at mailman.qth.net; yaesu at mailman.qth.net; kenwood at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [ICOM] What is wrong with SMA?

I have been reading some equipment reviews on a
website, and many reviewers complained about an HT
having a SMA connector instead of a BNC.  So what is
wrong with SMA connectors?  I like them better than
BNC connectors since they are smaller and are just as
easy to use.

73s John W5TD

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