how to put n-male ends on coaxal cable

does anyone knows where can i find tutorials or pictures on how to put on the ends on the llc coaxal cables..please

thanks in advance

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Reply to
Shotta_tav
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On Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:36:21 -0500, Shotta_tav wrote in :

Vveerryy ccaarreeffuullyy! :)

Reply to
John Navas

Do replies here even get forwarded to that forum? And what is LLC coax?

Reply to
miso

Shotta_tav hath wroth:

Limited Liability Corporation? Look for the manufacturers name just before the LLC. Also, see if you can find a coax cable number:

Then, you can look at your N-male coax connect and see if it has a manufactory and part number. Then, perhaps the instructions can be found.

You might want to reconsider thanking me. Soldering or crimping N connectors requires some practice. You're almost certain to ruin a few until you get it right. If crimped, you'll need to buy a crimping tool. If soldered, it's probably the wrong type of coax cable for anything other than short length pigtails.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Not sure of what kind of coax cable you are talking about, but this might help,

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a connector crimp kit at top of the page. I keep one on each of my truckss.

Reply to
DTC

Unless you are a jobber doing installations, you probably can't afford the crimp tool; consider locating a firm or person in your area that does installations and have your cable connectors crimped for a hopefully small fee. Don't consider soldering; at these wavelengths you would need to be quite proficient to get a useful result.

Michael

Reply to
msg

I've done compression fittings and crimp on. [The crimper ain't cheap!] I find the commercially built cables to be superior if you can find one that fits your needs. About 2 years ago I bought a bunch of Cushcraft Ultralink cables for a veyr fair price on ebay. The 3 footer cost less than the what I would pay for connectors. They are a bit stiff.

Reply to
miso

msg hath wroth:

Cheapo crimpers are adequate (if properly used).

About $40/ea from numerous online sources. The HT-336G and HT-336R will suffice for LMR-400 and smaller, including the common RG sizes. LMR-600 and the larger sizes user more expensive tools, but match the sizes of common electrical hex crimpers.

My most common screwup are dealing with the subtle differences between the various grades of LMR-400. For example, rubberized (ultra-flex) and plastic jacket (ultra-stiff) LMR-400 cable are slightly different outside diameters, which require different connectors.

Small fee? The N connectors cost me about $9/ea. It takes about 10 minutes per crimp, plus about 30 minutes finding all the junk needed in the truck, dragging it into the office, getting setup, doing the crimp, cleaning up the mess, throwing everything back into the truck, and testing the result on a sweep generator and TDR. At $75/hr plus the cost of replacing the overpriced razor blades in the stripper, that's about $80 per cable (two connectors). You're better off buying the crimpers.

Drivel: I loan my tools to the local hams for their projects. I know it's risky, but the entertainment value of watching them struggle with the connectors is worth the risk.

Like crimping soldering takes practice and is easily mastered after destroying the requisite amount of equipment. However, soldering is not the problem. It's the UG-21b/u N connector:

left over from WWII that is the problem. There are a few solder type replacements, that work much better than this antique nightmare. It's also made to works with RG-8/u type cables, which are very lossy at

2.4GHz and should only be used for short pigtails.

$24 for an antique N connector?

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

snipped-for-privacy@sushi.com hath wroth:

About $40/ea all over the net. The one for LMR-600 is about $80. After "losing" a $350 AMP Certi-crimp tool, my policy on such tools is NBC (Nothing But Cheap).

Yeah, right. The only failures I've had were with commercially built cables. That function is usually outsourced to a high skool kid in a garage borrowing his fathers tools. I've seen an amazing number of creative stripping and crimping efforts from "commerical" cable vendors, all of them hidden under opaque black shrink tube. I can usually spot the problems with a TDR and sweep generator, but after a few disasters, I test everything. Incidentally, I bought the tools not to make my own cables, but to repair the crap I was getting from my suppliers.

I've also done quite well buying such things on eBay. However, it's the exotic cable combinations (i.e. pigtails) and repair jobs that drive the need for a crimper. Interestingly, the most common cable I have to make is a simple LMR-400 extension, with N connectors on both ends, but that has to be fed through a 1/2" hole in the wall. Same with LMR-400 shoved through packed PVC conduit. There's no way to build the cable in advance as the connectors are bigger than the hole or won't go through the conduit. So, it has to be built on site.

Now, if I can only remember to slide on the shrink tube BEFORE crimping the connector...

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I think I paid $60 for the crimper at Fry's, but it has interchangeable die (if that is the right word).

My problem is the connector being pulled off the cable. In some ways, I thing the UHF connector that requires soldering is more reliable. A crappy connector mind you, but what is soldered doesn't fall off.

Where do you get extra crimp rings?

Reply to
miso

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what Fry's peddles.

Reply to
miso

snipped-for-privacy@sushi.com hath wroth:

The prices on the HyperlinkTech web pile seem to be much less than what I paid (about 4 years ago).

I have the same problem. It's almost always the wrong size connector. Like I mumbled, there are subtle differences in OD with different grades of LMR-400 (and others).

Maybe, if you don't destroy the cable from overheating.

Try it with a frequency sweep test and TDR test, and see if you still like PL-259/SO-239 connectors.

I've tried to get them from RF Industries and King, but failed. No part number on just the rings as of about 3 years ago when I last checked. Also, too many different sizes. I just downloaded the RF Industries catalog... nothing.

So, I dug out the copper and brass tubing catalogs and found some copper tubing that was rather close to what I needed. It's much thicker than the stock crimp ring, but it crunches down to the right size quite nicely with the judicious application of lots of brute force. I also have a friend that owns a machine shop that found some brass tubing that was close. It's not very pretty looking, but I hide my mistakes under a layer of shrink tube.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Jeff Liebermann wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Don't you just hate when that happens !!!!!

I'm partial to cable-clamp type connectors over crimp style. If an end goes bad, you can easily just take the connector apart and re-attach it.

Of course, the ends that go bad are usually on bench cables that get a lot of connect/disconnect cycles....not too many problems with connectors that are just connected and left alone.

Reply to
DanS

I'll look into finding the right size tubing. It seems ridiculous to buy a new connector for lack of a crinp ring. What a scam.

Reply to
miso

Yep. I do have some alternatives. My favorite is to wrap the connector with 1/2" wide PTFE plumbers tape. I then embalm the PTFE tape in electrical tape. The PTFE provides waterproofing and prevent wicking. The electrical tape just holds it in place. When removed, the connect is as shinny as new.

That's because UG-21b/u style connectors always go bad. They're not really made to tolerate much twisting and yanking, as is common with my test cables. Eventually, they just fall apart.

That hasn't been the case with crimp type connectors. They seem to last forever with a few noteable exceptions. The small SMA or smaller connectors and tiny cables are a problem. The edge of the crimp sleeve always seems to cut into the coax jacket and rip up the connector. It still works, but looks awful. One fix is to use wateproof (AMP/TYCO) connectors, which have a rubber sleeve between the coax jacket and the crimp sleeve.

Better the test cables go bad than the mating connectors on the test equipment. I have some junk that used plated zinc BNC connectors. All the ears have worn off.

My favorite connector is the CATV F connector, which is not really a connector but more like a threaded sleeve to hold the coax in the receptacle. Cheap, efficient, disposable, and quite good RF characteristics. RG-6/u and F connectors work nicely at 2.4 GHz.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I measured, recorded, and misplaced a table of dimensions for the various RF Industries crimp sleeves. I'll dig when I get home.

If you order copper, make sure you get hard drawn copper, not soft. Soft just doesn't have the holding power and will cold flow. Also, note that there's a big difference in pipe and tubing. Pipe is measured by the ID, while tubing by the OD. Note the comments on:

Also, I had some trouble cutting the sleeves as the tubing would get mangled by my pipe cutter. So, I turned a round wood dowel to the correct size and used it for inside support. Later, I used a lathe to do the cutting, but that was overkill. The only problem with the pipe cutter is that it tends to create a sharp edge, which when pointed inward at the coax jacket, will badly gouge the coax cable. You'll need to deburr the cut crimp sleeves, which is not easy.

Since none of the sleeves every carry RF on any surface, I saw no reason to silver plate them. However, I did have some electroless silver (Silver Cyanide) handy, so I did it anyway. Be sure to degrease and acid wash the sleeves first. (Yeah, I forgot and they look awful).

You might want to call or write RF Industries in case something has changed in the last few years. If not, you may find it profitable to sell sleeves and crimp rings on eBay.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I see Rat Shack sells crimp rings for RG-6.

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I didn't have any luck finding crimp rings for RG-8.

Totally off-topic, but I installed NEC2. Man, what a stone-age piece of software. 4NEC2 crashes under X64. The only one I could get to run on my Suse box was nec2c. I ran Trevor Marshall's biquad in about a minute. [I'll see if compilation flags can improve this.] This is going to be a steep learning curve.

I'll start a new thread here should I have any wifi NEC2 questions, but will most likely just join the NEC2 list.

Reply to
miso

I don't use crimped F connectors. I use the waterproof T&B fitting and a piston insertion tool. The rings are probably too short (in length) to work with anything other than an F connector.

I'll see if I can find my tubing list.

Which one? There are plenty to choose from.

What you have is a Fortran simulation program, with a Windoze front end. The consensus in the mailing list is that it's better to have accurate numbers than a glitzy front end. If it were written in a pure Windoze environment (dot Net?), it would probably be VERY slow.

Tell it to Ari. He listens to complaints. Be prepared to describe your system and environment. If all else fails, you might wanna compile your own. Source code at:

Try some of the examples that come with 4NEC2.

The NEC2 list does not do well with basic design questions. Most of the participants are professional designers and academics. Read the archives before asking questions. Unfortunately, I don't know of a better place to ask questions.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I only pointed out the RG-6 to show at least some crimp rings exist without the rest of the connector.

Since the NEC2 archive page has quite a few programs on it, to be specific this is the one that compiled without a hassle:

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has some option regrading parallel jobs.

I didn't know there was g77 on windows. I'll give it a shot.

I really have to hand it those that converted the program to C. They cleaned up nearly a 1000 gotos. Also the memory is all dynamic.

My plan is to first study Trevors example. [Nothing better than having the solution before you start the analysis.] I'd like to model those AMOS designs so that I could evaluate a scaled L-band version.

Reply to
miso

On Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:41:29 -0800 in alt.internet.wireless, Jeff Liebermann wrote,

The tools sold for deburring rifle cartridges for hand reloading are useful.

Reply to
David Harmon

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