I always use screw on f connectors correctly sized for the coax cable. Where there is a requirement to connect to a belling lee socket I simply use the appropriate f to belling lee adaptor (male or female) as required.
That's what I do nowadays as well, much less hassle and better connections.
There isn't a custom tool for it as they are not designed or meant to be crimped.
Crimping distorts the pin. This then may damage the socket it is plugged in to. If that is part of a TV it becomes a very expensive cowboy bodge.
Winston
Those who have done it thousands of times I suspect would disagree.
You simply cannot mess about soldering belling type coax plugs when installing antennas .
Not to crimp results in time with oxidisation of the two dissimilar metals ,copper and I presume plated brass .
So crimping without damaging the coax plug has been done for years as a alternative to soldering and is definatly not a bodge.
It certainly doesn't damage the socket on the telly or flush mounted wall outlet plate if done correctly.
What does damage the socket and wall outlet is the telly being moved to hoover while the cable is still connected .
As to using F connectors with a coax adaptor ,do a measure of the insertion loss , it can be at 800MHZ a considerable loss and can offset the extra gain that a small multi element antenna has over a 10 element yagi.
F connectors are poor compared to the belling lee type(IEC) and originated here in the US on VHF cable systems ,they are poor at 800MHZ and 2GHZ ,but 1.5 dB off loss compared to the 60 dB gain in a LNB and 3dB per 10m of downlead is not relevant.
But at the end of the day all that matters is there is enough signal above the cliff edge and the signal level doesn't drop in time through a poor connector.
Incidentally this problem is overcome in professional broadcast connectors with a compression type centre conductor
I can see why crimping would be just as good and a lot quicker and more convenient though. But I'm still surprised there isn't a custom tool for it, if the practice is as widespread as you suggest. There seem to be crimping tools for everything else!
Because there's no need for it - side cutters are all that's required, and the aerial installer already has them in his hand
As I said before, if coax plugs were designed to be soldered they would make them out of material better suited to take solder, and of plastic with a much higher melting point :P
Because there's no need for it - side cutters are all that's required, and the aerial installer already has them in his hand
As I said before, if coax plugs were designed to be soldered they would make them out of material better suited to take solder, and of plastic with a much higher melting point :P
They are designed to be soldered and as I pointed out the CAI recommend it. Side cutters are for cutting, not crimping.
And again, the CAI method is just one personal opinion - from someone with no credibility in the trade I doubt any of the CAI members solder their coax plugs, or indeed were even aware of the existence of their suggested method?.
The design of the plugs rather proves that they AREN'T designed to be soldered, they were be made differently if they were.
I'm surprised you claim F type to be worse than B/L. B/L originated even before VHF and are poor at UHF. I've not done any measurements but always assumed F to be superior. The screw on ones are poor though, compression are best with crimp on second best.
I have measured a whole range of 50 ohm and 75 ohm connectors , some of them costing a small fortune .
The f connectors do the job they were in the main intended for as they are a low cost connector that enable the use of low cost splitters and taps .
The Belling Lee connector as it is generally know , is a better match at higher frequencies and consequently when I tested the proper machined alloy types made by Belling Lee they performed better than F connectors .
However this was some time ago and I am not too impressed with the quality of some current imports I have seen ,but to be fair I have had no need recently to measure them .
The kit I used to measure at the time is high end Agilent (Hewlitt Packard) network analyser that at the time almost cost the price of a small house .
But the real issue is in the digital age is signal levels need sufficient margin above the so called cliff edge and better connectors , not clipping cables if allowed can add enough to this margin to ensure no intermittent loss of service .
A interesting test is to measure a F connector fly lead and a f connector wall plate connected in series at 2Ghz with 10 m of coax , fixed with cable clips .
Each clip can screw up the impedance if it squashes the coax .
A 10 m downlead that should have a loss of 3dB at 2GHz can then have a loss of 10dB with these connected in series and proportionately less at UHF .
10 dB of course reduces the power to 10% .
Comments
Winston
Those who have done it thousands of times I suspect would disagree.
You simply cannot mess about soldering belling type coax plugs when installing antennas .
Not to crimp results in time with oxidisation of the two dissimilar metals ,copper and I presume plated brass .
So crimping without damaging the coax plug has been done for years as a alternative to soldering and is definatly not a bodge.
It certainly doesn't damage the socket on the telly or flush mounted wall outlet plate if done correctly.
What does damage the socket and wall outlet is the telly being moved to hoover while the cable is still connected .
As to using F connectors with a coax adaptor ,do a measure of the insertion loss , it can be at 800MHZ a considerable loss and can offset the extra gain that a small multi element antenna has over a 10 element yagi.
F connectors are poor compared to the belling lee type(IEC) and originated here in the US on VHF cable systems ,they are poor at 800MHZ and 2GHZ ,but 1.5 dB off loss compared to the 60 dB gain in a LNB and 3dB per 10m of downlead is not relevant.
But at the end of the day all that matters is there is enough signal above the cliff edge and the signal level doesn't drop in time through a poor connector.
Incidentally this problem is overcome in professional broadcast connectors with a compression type centre conductor
Because there's no need for it - side cutters are all that's required, and the aerial installer already has them in his hand
As I said before, if coax plugs were designed to be soldered they would make them out of material better suited to take solder, and of plastic with a much higher melting point :P
And again, the CAI method is just one personal opinion - from someone with no credibility in the trade
The design of the plugs rather proves that they AREN'T designed to be soldered, they were be made differently if they were.
The f connectors do the job they were in the main intended for as they are a low cost connector that enable the use of low cost splitters and taps .
The Belling Lee connector as it is generally know , is a better match at higher frequencies and consequently when I tested the proper machined alloy types made by Belling Lee they performed better than F connectors .
However this was some time ago and I am not too impressed with the quality of some current imports I have seen ,but to be fair I have had no need recently to measure them .
The kit I used to measure at the time is high end Agilent (Hewlitt Packard) network analyser that at the time almost cost the price of a small house .
But the real issue is in the digital age is signal levels need sufficient margin above the so called cliff edge and better connectors , not clipping cables if allowed can add enough to this margin to ensure no intermittent loss of service .
A interesting test is to measure a F connector fly lead and a f connector wall plate connected in series at 2Ghz with 10 m of coax , fixed with cable clips .
Each clip can screw up the impedance if it squashes the coax .
A 10 m downlead that should have a loss of 3dB at 2GHz can then have a loss of 10dB with these connected in series and proportionately less at UHF .
10 dB of course reduces the power to 10% .
End of waffling 😜
PS
Bellow David Cameron's first love
🐖