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RF connector

any electrical connector designed to work at radio frequencies in the multi-megahertz range

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ2164724
Source-derived summary

An RF connector (radio frequency connector) is an electrical connector designed to work at radio frequencies in the multi-megahertz range.

RF connectors are typically used with coaxial cables and are designed to maintain the shielding that the coaxial design offers. Better models also minimize the change in transmission line impedance at the connection in order to reduce signal reflection and power loss. As the frequency increases, transmission line effects become more important, with small impedance variations from connectors causing the signal to reflect rather than pass through. An RF connector must not allow external signals into the circuit through electromagnetic interference and capacitive pickup.

Mechanically, RF connectors may provide a fastening mechanism (thread, bayonet, braces, blind mate) and springs for a low ohmic electric contact while sparing the gold surface, thus allowing very high mating cycles and reducing the insertion force. Research activity in the area of radio-frequency circuit design has surged in the 2000s in direct response to the enormous market demand for inexpensive, high-data-rate wireless transceivers.

Common types of RF connectors are used for television receivers, two-way radio, Wi-Fi PCIe cards with removable antennas, and industrial or scientific measurement instruments using radio frequencies.

See also

List of RF connector types

Antenna socket

Optical fiber connector

References

External links

Common Coaxial Connectors Archived 2009-01-22 at the Wayback Machine

RF Connectors For Upper Frequencies

How To Use Coaxial Connectors For RF Applications Archived 2020-11-09 at the Wayback Machine

RF connectors Summary of the main types and additional pages with details of each type mentioned.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “RF connector” is any electrical connector designed to work at radio frequencies in the multi-megahertz range. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through connector, electrical and designed, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2009, 2020—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, connector, electrical and designed is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “any electrical connector designed to work at radio frequencies in the multi-megahertz range” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2164724. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2009 and 2020.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from RF connector” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.