[Milsurplus] Connector history

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Actually, if you look closely at what's stamped on the flanges of the 
connectors on the ANP-1, etc. you'll see that the prefix is AN.  Cannon built 
several other Series.  The P-Series (which have only one shell size hence no 
prefix-letter) were used on components of SCR-284.  I'm not sure that I ever 
saw any of their several other letter series on military radio or radio 
related gear.

Cannon had a subsidiary named Aero who also built K-Series.  They are 
intermatable with the Cannon ones but some of the piece parts in some but not all 
of their production are not.  I think I have seen Breeze on a couple of 
early parts lists but am not sure that I've ever seen hardware marked other 
than Cannon or Aero.  Some of the Aero are an absolute bi*ch to assemble.  No 
circlip to hold the guts in the plug body.  Remove the backshell and turn the 
plug over and the rear insert and contacts will fall out.  I had a bunch of 
Aero GK-12's (fit the TCS receiver) that I was afraid to sell.  The inserts 
are just a little longer than the Cannon ones so you can't just put them 
into Cannon metal.  So I took them all apart and faced of one half of the 
insert about .030" and then put them into Cannon metal.  You can't just cut a 
circlip groove because part of it would overlap the screw holes.

The Genesis connectors (if they still make the correct insert needed) will 
fit the WW-II gear that uses K-Series.  But they are quite expensive.  Last 
time I asked Craig at Ace about them, just the contacts alone were about 
$1.20 each.  A set of 6 connectors for a TCS would set you back over $300.

In a message dated 11/27/2011 17:33:47 PM Central Standard Time, 
aaf-radio-1 at aafradio.org writes: 
> Close enough, John.  Anyone who has had to work with the fine threaded 
> AN/MS connectors versus Cannon connectors in close quarters blessed the 
> foresight of the Cannon Company (who I seem to recall may have obtained 
> the design from the Breeze connector folks in England in the 1930s 
> through the simple avenue of buying rights in the company...)  It's hard 
> to figure out why the coarse thread Cannon was eclipsed by the Amphenol 
> produced design other than influence, political or financial, although 
> Cannon apparently took credit for the fine thread design as well.  The 
> drawbacks of the Cannon coarse thread design were few - a limitation on 
> the right angle backshell position to only three or four directions 
> being one of them.  There may have been an issue with second party 
> sourcing that prevented their widespread use as well - Amphenol had 
> apparently released manufacturing rights to the government for the 
> duration of the war, and I have seen the Amphenol design with minor 
> variations and at least four other company trademarks.  All were 
> interoperable physically.  I've never discovered a second source for the 
> Cannon style connectors of the period, though one or two may exist.
> 
> Interestingly enough, the coarse thread Cannon style is still produced 
> by PEI-Genesis as "Standard-K" connectors.  Their brochure sez, "Since 
> 1994 Standard-K has been manufactured in the USA by Sure Seal 
> Connections, a division of PEI-Genesis. Standard-K is used in 
> applications as diverse as rock concert audio snakes, mass transit, and 
> in the frozen heart of the latest MRI medical machines."
> 
> 73,
> Mike
> 
> On 11/27/2011 5:42 PM, J. Forster wrote:
> >My (possibly incorrect) usage has been:
> >
> >Course Acme threaded- as in ART-13, MN-26, and ARB = Cannon connectors
> >Fine triangular thread- as in APN-1, APN-2, ASB = MS connectors
> 

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480