What is the name of this antenna connector on the Kenwood TH-F6A?
2 Answers
Yes, that is a standard Female SMA connector. Heads-up to be careful when purchasing SMA antennas as there are several combinations. Most higher-end HTs have a standard Female SMA connector on the radio, and a standard Male SMA on the antenna. Many of the newer Chinese-made HTs invert that, with the standard Male SMA on the radio, and a standard Female SMA connector on the antenna. Meanwhile, most WiFi equipment uses "Reverse Polarity SMA" (RP-SMA), where the threads are the same as the standard male & female, but the pin and receptacle are swapped:
- Standard SMA Female = center receptacle & external thread
- Standard SMA Male = center pin & internal thread
- RP-SMA Female = center pin & external thread
- RP-SMA Male = center receptacle & internal thread
See the wikipedia article for details and images: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMA_connector
I had previously written here, incorrectly, that the Chinese HTs have RP-SMA connectors, which is apparently a common mis-conception among Hams (myself included). Thanks to MoTLD for the correction.
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1$\begingroup$ While it's good to mention RP-SMA vs. standard SMA, in my experience RP-SMA are only found on WiFi stuff, not Chinese radios. The confusion is in that in the pre-Chinese-HT era pretty much everybody had standardized on the female SMA seen on OP's Kenwood and the mating male SMA on the antenna. The Chinese brands instead used a male SMA on the HT and mating female on the antenna, which was confusingly and incorrectly called a reverse SMA by some hams because it was the "reverse" of the female-HT/male-antenna standard they were used to, which morphed into "Chinese HT's have RP-SMA." They do not. $\endgroup$– MoTLDMay 5, 2017 at 0:44
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1$\begingroup$ I'll be darned, you're right. Apparently I fell for the "reverse-SMA" mixup. No wonder I was still confused when looking at my chinese HTs. Thanks for setting me right... I'll edit my answer. $\endgroup$ May 5, 2017 at 2:35