Old timer warned me about cheap coax connectors - he was right

A retired avionics guy I met at a shop in Tucson told me never to buy the no-name BNC connectors off Amazon. I figured he was just being picky, so I grabbed a bag of 20 for $12 anyway. After two weeks, three of them had intermittent shorts when I tested with my multimeter - totally wasted my time troubleshooting. Had to pull all the wiring on a Cessna 172 tray and redo it with quality Amphenol parts. Any of you guys have a certain brand you stick with for RF connections?

3 comments

3 Comments

green.noah2d ago

That old timer knew what he was talking about. Did those cheap connectors have that gold plating that peels off after a few insertions or was it just bad crimp barrels?

wright.leo1d ago

@abby_cooper Same here and those gold plated ones from the big box stores flaked off on me after like three uses, total junk.

abby_cooper2d ago

I've had good luck just pre-tinning the wire ends and using decent barrel connectors from an electronics supply shop. Never had one fail on me that way.