Does Anyone Have Any BNC Cables or Connectors?

mlucitt

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#1
The term BNC comes from the type of connector and the inventor's names - Bayonet Neill-Concelman (BNC). Paul Neill of Bell Labs was a major influence, Concelman worked at Amphenol. They were working on a military connector that was simple to use. The connector is referenced in MIL-STD-348. Typically the male connector is fitted to a cable, and the female to a panel on equipment. They are usually applied for frequencies below 4 GHz and voltages below 500 volts. The design was patented in 1951. BNC connectors are most commonly made in 50 and 75 ohm versions, matched for use with cables of the same characteristic impedance.
BNC_50_75_Ohm.jpg
 

8991XJ

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#2
Wow just a teaser post. Made me look up the wiki on these as I have numerous BNC parts. A few 12 or so M-F extensions, adapters, gold and nickel, scope probes and of course the scope and fun gen connections and I got no idea about the 50 vs. 75Ω options, issues or whatever. So I'll look at wiki and see if it tells me anything. Thanks for making me have to learn something today.
 

orange

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#3
I have BNC to RCA adapters for one of my CRT projectors.
 

wattsabundant

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#4
I've got a variety of BNC cables and adaptors. The scope in my rack has dual BNC to female binding post adaptors. All of my audio cables are fitted with Pomona MDP's on one end so they plug into the scope. I rarely use scope probes except for signal tracing. I recently worked on an integrated amp with separate pre our/main in jacks. I looked at the preamp output with an RCA cable/Pomona MDP, then quickly switched to the speaker level output with speaker cables fitted with MDP's on one end and bare copper on the other end that has been tinned. Most of my cables are more than 30 years old with only 1 RCA cable having failed. I also wore out a MDP from plugging it in/out. My every day analog scope is 35 years old and it's BNC's are in good shape because the BNC adapters rarely get removed.
 

FredR

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#6
Common in ham radio for VHF and UHF. That or N connectors. HF is usually PL-259
 

mlucitt

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#7
MDP is Pomona's nomenclature for Multiple (stackable) Dual Plug (Banana). MDP #1 is black with a cable guide, MDP #2 is red with a cable guide, MDP #3 is orange with a cable guide, etc. up to MDP #9 which is white with a cable guide. At least that is what I remember, maybe Fred or Don have a different reference.
 

8991XJ

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#10
I really like the quality of the MDP, not knowing that is what they are named. Came with my first amp in 74 and are what I prefer.

Tried some of that chinese crap, grub screw was not fully threaded and the extended tip. Put a wire in the banana and the set screw would not reach the threads. Had to grind of the extended tip cause I don't use 28 gauge wire with bananas.

Then the banana peeled leaving a bare stud. That chinese crap was junk. Pomona all the way.
 

wattsabundant

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#11
I tried the foreign equivalence a couple times. Wasn’t even close to being the same as the Pomona’s. I found some good deals on multiple purchases on eBay a few times They were in the $2.50 range each l

For testing amplifiers, having cables terminated with the MDPs make it Really nice. I also use adapters on signal generators so I can use the same RCA cables to feed inputs and outputs of preamp’s etc. The fact that the spacing on multi meters is the same is a bonus.
 

kl0neMan

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#13
I have some of those for some test equipment as well as TNC connectors for doing differential connections. They look similar but have an additional inner ring connection and 3 nibs around the barrel of the female that engage with 3 slots on the male.
 
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