Help, Bi-sexual SMA connectors

I have two external WiFi antennas here but I can't figure out what's up. On both antennas the external, rotating collar is female, but inside, in the teflon one is male and one is female. Anyone know what the proper nomenclature is for the two? Thanks.

 

Without pics I think you have an RP-SMA and a regular SMA - if you could post pics I could be for sure -

 

Sounds like RP-SMA... Both connectors have a ring on white around them? The opening is about the size of a small pea? (Looks to be about 7mm actually)

Post pics to be sure... Or look up SMA on ebay or the web and verify.

 

OK Thanks. Here is a picture, antenna on right fits male SMA bulkhead fitting. Any help will be appreciated. View attachment 16870
I have no idea if this will open or not?

 

Yep it opened up in Adobe - looks like you have RP-SMA male and female. The one with the pin is the Female and the one without the is the male. It is opposite from what you would think I know - if the threads are different the one with the pin could also be a regular SMA - just can't tell by the pic they are very close.

 

Mega, Thanks, I think I'm a little less confused. It gives me a place to start searching at least.

 

Check the wikipedia entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMA_connector

TB prob. nailed it as the RP-SMA (or RSMA) - reverse polarity SMA.

Picture of male SMA at top and female RSMA in the middle.

 

If you are looking for an SMA bulkhead connector to put out the side for a side mount antenna... You will need one with the pin in the center (female) as all SMA antennas that I have seen do not have a pin in the center. (Though I am sure they are out there.)

 

The antenna with the center pin is half of the IBM set on e-Bay that was mentioned here. The other antenna in the set is the little one that kind of looks like TB et al's geohelix active antennas. I need to find some u.fl/ipex by sma without pin pigtails so I can mount the little antennas on the lcd. Thanks all for your input.
OK, I think I've got it, according to Lighthorse Technologies, my antennas are SMA Plugs, I need pigtails with SMA Jacks on one end.
View attachment 16903

View attachment 16904

Thank you all for your help!

 

Bump, I'm still learning how this works, edits don't move thread up apparently.

 

DogFish -

In my experience, the RP-SMA connctors are often used on the Transmit antenna on Wireless Access Points which have a separate antenna for transmit & receive. This is to discourage those ill-informed & wannabe antenna tuners from trying improperly matched antennas & creating massive off-frequency interference because of improper loading on the transmitter.

This typically makes the antenna much better for transmitting than receiving, even on its intended frequency range. As such, it is usually a poor choice for use on a mobile WiFi transceiver, where antennas need to be designed for both transmit AND receive on the same element.

I'd suggest seeking out a matched pair of antennas designed either for 2.4 GHZ if you're going to be using Wireless B/G, or multiband 2.4/5GHZ if A/B/G is your desire. Be mindful; these antennas usually sacrifice a fair amount of gain in the B/G bands to get passable gain in the A band.

mnem
*And the Jailer man and Sailor Sam were searching every one... For the band on the run... the band on the run...*

 

Regular SMA antenna's are used on amateur & commercial handy talkie radios....
The are designed to handle more power than Wi-Fi models.

 

...but are not tuned to operate at the frequencies you want.