Concur on some of what Jim Brown said, but have ordered high quality
cables from vendors that cater to commercial customers vs ham
vendors. For repeaters I used RG-223 cable with N-male connectors
from reputable vendors. Of course my employer paid.
I make almost all my cables as, I too, trust my own ability to chose
good quality components and do quality installation. I did make up
RG-58 and RG-8/x cables with crimp connectors where they were in
long-term installation. For test cables or any that are subject to
repeated movement my experience is the crimps eventually fail. I
still like them for the convenience (in certain circumstances).
At work I mainly used BNC or N connectors. Also had TNC and mini-UHF
on certain radios. Very few industrial radios use
SO-239/PL-259. Mainly seen on marine radios (and CB/ham, of
course). Aircraft radios use BNC a lot. TNC and sma are used quite
a bit will cellular equipment.
At work I had the $500 Times Microwave crimper with multiple dies for
different connectors. At home I have a $99 copy that does a fine job
on RG-58 and RG-8/x (or RG-6). But I trust compression nut style
connectors where I want absolute reliability.
I least like PL-259 as they are susceptible to shorting if overheated
in assembly. I use a ton of adapters, though one needs to be careful
with brand as not all are good. Amphenol PL-259 are what I use.
BNC is appropriate on the KX3 and other portable
equipment. Understandable that SO-239 are used for amplifiers,
etc. This topic is kind of no issue to me? If you were dealing with
50 contact connectors I might agree.
73, Ed - KL7UW
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