The UHF connector—known to most practitioners as the PL-259 (male) and SO-239 (female)—is one of the oldest and most recognizable RF interfaces still in everyday use. Despite the name, it is not a true UHF connector in the modern sense. It performs best below 300 MHz and becomes increasingly lossy and reflective as frequency rises. Yet its rugged threaded coupling, low co...
There is a particular kind of engineering decision that looks trivial on a schematic but quietly determines whether a radio works at all: the choice of the tiny coaxial connector that carries the antenna signal off the PCB. The IPEX connector—known generically as MHF, U.FL-compatible, or “the little snap-on RF connector”—is that decision. It occupies a few squ...