Shielded Banana Plugs
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From: Rich Grise on Google groups on 27 May 2010 16:58 On May 27, 1:00 pm, Joerg <inva...(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: > Tim Wescott wrote: > > On 05/27/2010 11:14 AM, Tauno Voipio wrote: > > >> A shielded banana plug is called PL 259, also UHF connector. > > > By construction that's not really a banana plug -- banana plugs have the > > spring on the plug, not the socket -- but you've certainly captured the > > level of sophistication of the PL-259 and its close relatives! > > It has been much maligned but I have to say that the PL-259 has always > been good to me. You can safely get a kilowatt across. Plus banana plug > fit into the socket, in a pinch. > It's easy-peasy to solder it onto a piece of RG-8/U, or RG-58 or -59/ U, with the adapter. I stuck a piece of 300-0hm twinlead into one once, to drive my 40M folded dipole; the pi-net output of my 75W transmitter tuned up just nice, and I made some contacts! (The rest of the family complained about the key clicks in the [AM] radio, however.) ;-) Cheers! Rich
From: Tim Wescott on 27 May 2010 16:59 On 05/27/2010 01:00 PM, Joerg wrote: > Tim Wescott wrote: >> On 05/27/2010 11:14 AM, Tauno Voipio wrote: >>> Joerg wrote: >>>> Tim Wescott wrote: >>>>> I want to make some custom cables for battery testing to plug into my >>>>> Fluke meter. I'd really rather use the nifty shielded banana plugs >>>>> like Fluke uses, to reduce the chances of inadvertently frying a >>>>> battery. >>>>> >>>>> Anyone know a source other than Pomona, which wants an arm and a leg? >>>>> >>>> >>>> I don't know what an arm and a leg goes for these days, and I've not >>>> bought anything myself there so far, but here is one vendor: >>>> >>>> http://www.testpath.com/Categories/Banana-Plugs-4mm-Shrouded-Straight-In-line-2940.htm >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Hint for your web searches: The popular term is shrouded banana plug, >>>> not shielded. >>>> >>> >>> A shielded banana plug is called PL 259, also UHF connector. >>> >> By construction that's not really a banana plug -- banana plugs have >> the spring on the plug, not the socket -- but you've certainly >> captured the level of sophistication of the PL-259 and its close >> relatives! >> > > It has been much maligned but I have to say that the PL-259 has always > been good to me. You can safely get a kilowatt across. Plus banana plug > fit into the socket, in a pinch. The only two strikes that I see against it is that (a) it can be hard to solder correctly, and (b) in light of the performance of a constant-impedance connector, the term "UHF" is laughable, however much the connector may have outperformed whatever it replaced. (b) is just a marketing problem -- the connector works fine at HF. (a) is just a training problem -- given an iron with enough thermal mass those things solder up just fine. -- Tim Wescott Control system and signal processing consulting www.wescottdesign.com
From: Joerg on 27 May 2010 18:02 Tim Wescott wrote: > On 05/27/2010 01:00 PM, Joerg wrote: >> Tim Wescott wrote: >>> On 05/27/2010 11:14 AM, Tauno Voipio wrote: >>>> Joerg wrote: >>>>> Tim Wescott wrote: >>>>>> I want to make some custom cables for battery testing to plug into my >>>>>> Fluke meter. I'd really rather use the nifty shielded banana plugs >>>>>> like Fluke uses, to reduce the chances of inadvertently frying a >>>>>> battery. >>>>>> >>>>>> Anyone know a source other than Pomona, which wants an arm and a leg? >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> I don't know what an arm and a leg goes for these days, and I've not >>>>> bought anything myself there so far, but here is one vendor: >>>>> >>>>> http://www.testpath.com/Categories/Banana-Plugs-4mm-Shrouded-Straight-In-line-2940.htm >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Hint for your web searches: The popular term is shrouded banana plug, >>>>> not shielded. >>>>> >>>> >>>> A shielded banana plug is called PL 259, also UHF connector. >>>> >>> By construction that's not really a banana plug -- banana plugs have >>> the spring on the plug, not the socket -- but you've certainly >>> captured the level of sophistication of the PL-259 and its close >>> relatives! >>> >> >> It has been much maligned but I have to say that the PL-259 has always >> been good to me. You can safely get a kilowatt across. Plus banana plug >> fit into the socket, in a pinch. > > The only two strikes that I see against it is that (a) it can be hard to > solder correctly, and (b) in light of the performance of a > constant-impedance connector, the term "UHF" is laughable, however much > the connector may have outperformed whatever it replaced. > > (b) is just a marketing problem -- the connector works fine at HF. > I have used them at 430MHz with a substantial amount of power (tens of watts). Nothing got hot, VSWR was fine. > (a) is just a training problem -- given an iron with enough thermal mass > those things solder up just fine. > Yes, you need big bertha to do that. 150W is sort of a minimum, I prefereed a 500W iron for that, it was faster. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
From: Tim Wescott on 27 May 2010 18:26 On 05/27/2010 03:02 PM, Joerg wrote: > Tim Wescott wrote: >> On 05/27/2010 01:00 PM, Joerg wrote: >>> Tim Wescott wrote: >>>> On 05/27/2010 11:14 AM, Tauno Voipio wrote: >>>>> Joerg wrote: >>>>>> Tim Wescott wrote: >>>>>>> I want to make some custom cables for battery testing to plug >>>>>>> into my >>>>>>> Fluke meter. I'd really rather use the nifty shielded banana plugs >>>>>>> like Fluke uses, to reduce the chances of inadvertently frying a >>>>>>> battery. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Anyone know a source other than Pomona, which wants an arm and a >>>>>>> leg? >>>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> I don't know what an arm and a leg goes for these days, and I've not >>>>>> bought anything myself there so far, but here is one vendor: >>>>>> >>>>>> http://www.testpath.com/Categories/Banana-Plugs-4mm-Shrouded-Straight-In-line-2940.htm >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> Hint for your web searches: The popular term is shrouded banana plug, >>>>>> not shielded. >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> A shielded banana plug is called PL 259, also UHF connector. >>>>> >>>> By construction that's not really a banana plug -- banana plugs have >>>> the spring on the plug, not the socket -- but you've certainly >>>> captured the level of sophistication of the PL-259 and its close >>>> relatives! >>>> >>> >>> It has been much maligned but I have to say that the PL-259 has always >>> been good to me. You can safely get a kilowatt across. Plus banana plug >>> fit into the socket, in a pinch. >> >> The only two strikes that I see against it is that (a) it can be hard >> to solder correctly, and (b) in light of the performance of a >> constant-impedance connector, the term "UHF" is laughable, however >> much the connector may have outperformed whatever it replaced. >> >> (b) is just a marketing problem -- the connector works fine at HF. >> > > I have used them at 430MHz with a substantial amount of power (tens of > watts). Nothing got hot, VSWR was fine. > > >> (a) is just a training problem -- given an iron with enough thermal >> mass those things solder up just fine. >> > > Yes, you need big bertha to do that. 150W is sort of a minimum, I > prefereed a 500W iron for that, it was faster. > I have one that's only 200W or so, but it's HUGE. It takes a long time to heat up, but the tip is about 3/8" diameter solid copper two inches long -- so it retains the heat really well, too. -- Tim Wescott Control system and signal processing consulting www.wescottdesign.com
From: Joel Koltner on 27 May 2010 19:03
"Tim Wescott" <tim(a)seemywebsite.now> wrote in message news:6KKdneCFgYK3QGPWnZ2dnUVZ_s2dnZ2d(a)web-ster.com... > The only two strikes that I see against it is that (a) it can be hard to > solder correctly, and (b) in light of the performance of a > constant-impedance connector, the term "UHF" is laughable, however much the > connector may have outperformed whatever it replaced. > > (b) is just a marketing problem -- the connector works fine at HF. Yes, although I believe there are some PL-259s where they mess around with the insulator's dielectric constant to get it much closer to 50ohms than the usual ones provide. > (a) is just a training problem -- given an iron with enough thermal mass > those things solder up just fine. Agreed, although in this day and age I kinda think crimping is the better way to go anyway: Easier and faster to do correctly than soldering. But everyone certainly *should* solder a few just to get an idea of what the original ones were like... :-) ---Joel |