vhf PL259 connector male or female

[FairweatherDave]

Just a quickie. Not at the boat and I need to establish if the PL259 connector from the aerial is likely to be male or female? Thanks for any answers

 

[richlear]

Almost certainly male on the antenna end.

 

[Tam Lin]

I put one on yesterday. It was male.

 

[dom]

Radio sets are by convention female an antennae male.

 

[snowbird30ds]

If the antenna has a lead from it the connector on it will most likely be male, if the connector is part of the antenna it will likely be female.
Radios are always female.

 

[FairweatherDave]

Thanks all. I shall return my converter to Amazon. ..... their advert was unclear about such minor details

 

[BabaYaga]

It could be useful to know that PL259 is always male. The corresponding female connector is SO239.
The former is always installed on the cable, the latter on the equipment (radio, aerial...)

 

[FairweatherDave]

Thanks.That's useful.
I have had a problem setting up my AIS receiver using an active splitter. The suggestion from Quark is to bypass the splitter and try the vhf aerial direct into the Quark (for diagnosis of its limited range problem). But that requires a BNC plug.

 

[Salty John]

For that you need an SO239/BNC adapter. It takes the PL259 at one end and plugs into the BNC socket on the equipment.
If you are incredibly bored someday you might want to read this:
http://www.saltyjohntheblog.com/2018/01/coax-cable-connectors.html

 

[Graham_Wright]

It could be useful to know that PL259 is always male. The corresponding female connector is SO239.
The former is always installed on the cable, the latter on the equipment (radio, aerial...)

"P" = plug, "S" = socket?

 

[FairweatherDave]

If you are incredibly bored someday you might want to read this:
http://www.saltyjohntheblog.com/2018/01/coax-cable-connectors.html

Thanks Salty...........I might be that bored

 

[William_H]

Obviously if you can test your AIS on the mast top antenna (no splitter) then that should prove your problem of short range. However I think splitters are a bad thing. What is best is another antenna on the stern rail for the AIS. However you need to set up cables and plugs so that this antenna can be used for the VHF com radio in case of top antenna failure or mast failure.
Now an antenna is not a hard thing to DIY. You need 17 inches of rod SS or bronze that you can attach the centre of the coax to. You need a way of mounting and insulating this from the rail and a connection of the outer braid to the rail at the base. 100_6759scaled.jpg (83.8 KB) The VHF is on the right the antenna on the left was 27mhz but now long gone. The VHF is my main antenna and works really well. Obviously if you cna raise the base higher you get better range. olewill