Help! SO239 Plug Confusion

[scanhermit]

I bought this plug from Nevada Radio, which I want to fit onto the bottom end of a T2LT.

https://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/so239-cri ... m-for-rg58

The YouTube tutorials show a plug type with a tip and a "sliding ferrule" that you crimp over the cable. The one I bought just has the parts shown. It's a Sharman Multicom plug and I've looked for instructions but to no avail. Has anyone fitted one of these?

[Antoni]

That is a mystery. Looks like you might have to solder it but that defeats the point of being crimp. Have you phoned the suppliers and asked them? Assuming they publish a number...

[scanhermit]

They're shut on a Sunday - I'll have to try tomorrow. A pity there isn't even an IKEA-style pictorial PDF on the website - we're not all seasoned hams or CBers

The type shown in video tutorials has both solder and crimp elements to their installation, confusingly.

[paulears]

The moonraker ones who are sharman multicom do 239/259 and N types like this. The centre pins are soldered, only the screen is crimped.

[scanhermit]

The one I bought has no centre pin.

What's a screen?

Pleeeaaase tell me what to dooooooo

[scanhermit]

Update: Nevada Radio have promised to knock me up a diagram. I'm impressed by their quickness and await with bated breath. They also plan to make a video and put it on their website. If and when they do I'll post it.

[paulears]

If you bought these and do not have the proper crimp tool you are stuck. You wont get a decent result with a pair of pliers! The screen of the cable is the braided copper outer. It goes over the knurled bit, then you slide down the crimp part so the braid is the middle of the sandwich. Then the crimp tool squishes them together.

[Metradio]

I spent the second half of the 1980's travelling around Southern England repairing mobile phone installations where installers had used pliers on crimp RF connectors, plus other wiring faults caused by unsuitable parts and incorrect fitting..

[scanhermit]

I bought a crimper that does up to 6mm. Looks very much like this one:

https://cableties.co.uk/products/360-pi ... f0d99f43eb

[paulears]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/connectors-Kag ... d_source=1

It should look like this one with a hex die.

[scanhermit]

Bugger. More money down the drain. Will this one do? I just need the tool minus other bits and bobs.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134073805690 ... BM8PnAqsdl

[paulears]

Dont know. Did moonraker/sharman multicom get back to you? Until they confirm their connectors need solder or not, do not buy anything. Crimp connectors are use for speed and simplicity, or perhaps when the cable needs threading through small holes and completed on site. I sell mainly marine radios and one i do has the centre pin soldered onto the antenna cable in the factory. I thread it through a small hole in the boat’s structure, metal or GRP and then on the boat, i crimp the end on as even a soldering arm might need a hot work permit!

PL 259, SO239, N types and BNC and TNC are all available in crimp ons. I buy the tool from the connector supplier, as some also crimp the internal centre pin. Some designs are pressure fit centre pin, and even then, only with specific cables.


It would be cheaper to buy a soldering iron, a stanley knife and some solder and spend an hour or two learning a life long useful skill. Plus more substantial connectors. Crimp connectors are usually less waterproof, as solder versions have better cable seals. Some 259 types are the opposite, they have a tapered thread that does not even need solder, you just solder the centre and friction/compression does the screen. Add tape, done.


The most unreliable connection is crimp with the wrong die.

[scanhermit]

Until they confirm their connectors need solder or not, do not buy anything

It's a crimp connector - see the link at the start of this thread. The only other cable SO239 they sell is part solder, part crimp. I'm not afraid of soldering - I used to solder PL259s back in the day with a very clunky soldering iron but Nevada only seem to sell plugs that are crimped at the back end. I suppose Amazon has non-crimp but you have to buy loads of them, and I only need one.

The project is a T2LT that will go up on a 6m fishing pole for portable deployment and sticking up in the garden on dry days. It's not going to be up on a mast in all weathers.

[paulears]

Forgive me, but the small part that accepts the PL259 centre pin has a plain hole. If you dont solder it, then it will quickly allow the bare copper to oxidise, and there is no crimp to make a pressure fit. Push fit for RF? These connectors are part-crimp? I guess you can solder, you’ve not said. To prepare the cable, just push in the insert so the front is flush in the right place, then measure from the rear flat surface to the end of the rear section. Take off the length that will be covered by the braid and outer. This will be the length of the bared dielectric. Leave enough to poke through and solder. Then it will fit and you slide the ferrule down and crimp. This i guess is what they will be doing to send to you, and you can do this yourself.

[scanhermit]

I've come to the conclusion that the "ferrule" in fact is inserted into the plug via the back so that the open end with slots cut goes to the front end of the plug and receives the PL259. The question is how much of the coax core do I poke through the little hole and where is it soldered? There is literally no access for a soldering gun on the inside of the ferrule.