Quote:
Originally Posted by M0FYA Andy
Richard,
Sorry, but 'female plug' and 'male socket' are oxymorons, resulting in ambiguity. My definitions of 'plug' and 'socket' come from an entire career in the aircraft industry, where confusion can be both costly and time-wasting (which of course is also costly), with connectors costing hundreds of pounds and many weeks lead time.
A plug has male contacts, and a socket has female contacts. Simple!
It doesn't matter whether the item is mounted on the end of a cable or chassis-mounted, this is a different attribute which must also be specified. So we can have a free (cable-mounted) plug or socket, and a fixed (chassis-mounted) plug or socket.
Of course there are odd-ball connectors which don't match this rule, such as hermaphrodite coax connectors, and others with a mix of male and female pins I have sen described as a 'plocket'!
But for straightforward connectors such as Plessey Mk4 the correct terminolgy is simple.
Andy
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Sure, I worked in an entirely different (commercial) industry where the free item was a plug (either male or female) and the fixed item was the socket (either male or female). I don't think there is any standard anywhere that defines which is right - or even preferred - its just different ways of doing things in two parts of industry that seldom come into contact with each other - except perhaps here in the vintage world!
Richard