How to identify Coaxial Connector Types

Most of the people get confused while buying the RF connectors. There are various types of RF connectors available in the market like Type-N, RPTNC, UHF (aka PL-259 / SO-239) TNC, BNC, RPSMA, SMA and many other cat6 connectors.

The connectors are divided into two basic categories; the standard one and the reverse polarity connectors. It is easy to tell the difference between the standard types of connectors, but it is a little bit confusing to differentiate between the genders of reverse polarity connectors.

In this article, we have provided a difference between the genders of connectors in terms of polarity (either standard or reverse).

Genders of Connectors – Male Vs Female:

You must keep in mind the following points whenever identifying male and female connectors:

• If you are mating a plug and a jack, do make sure that the two connectors have the same polarity. For example, if the male connector is of standard polarity then the female one should also be of the same polarity.
• The standard RF plugs are male. In male connectors, the threads are on the inside of the shell.
• The standard RF jacks are female. In these types of connectors, the threads are on the outside of the shell.
• When the two genders mate, the shell of a plug which is male covers the shell of a jack, a female.

Standard Polarity Connectors:

• In a standard polarity female jack, there is a socket in the middle. This socket is designed to get the pin from the male plug. The female connector or jack shell has threads on the outside such as the SMA jack which is usually used in a 3G/4G/LTE cellular gateway or GPS receiver devices.
• In a standard polarity male plug, there is a center pin that comes out from the middle. The plug consists of the threads on the inside. For example, SMA plug, which is used at the end of coax cable for connecting devices like 3G/4G/LTE cellular gateway or a GPS receiver.

Reverse polarity Connectors:

• A reverse polarity female jack consists of a center pin that comes out from the middle. There are threads on the outside of the shell of jack. For example, RPSMA-Female jack can be used on a 900 MHz ISM modem, 2.4/5 GHz 802.11 WiFi / WLAN radios or access points.

• A reverse polarity male plug consists of a socket in the middle. This socket receives the   pin from the female connector. In this case, the threads of plug’s shell are on the inside.

The major difference is that:

• A standard polarity jack or a female connector consists of a socket, whereas a reverse polarity jack or a female connector has a pin.
• A standard polarity plug or male connector has a pin which gets into the socket, but a reverse polarity plug or male connector has a socket which receives the pin.

We hope that this article will help you in understanding the types of connectors. If you have any question related to connector types, please feel free to ask in the box below: