TV Coax connectors

[Herald1360]

Not sure if these are components, TV bits or old household stuff, but here's a few titbits for the anoraks, found in a collection of bits passed on to me by an ex-colleague (retired rather than literally).

Some are really nicely made, some just classic telly aerial plugs and one, the RS plug seriously weird- it seems to be a solderless type, but how to terminate it?

Any ideas about the unknowns? One at any rate looks to be one of the higher quality types.

[ronbryan]

I believe the unknown socket to be 1960's Radiospares.

Ron

[MrElectronicman]

Here is my meager collection of plugs and sockets. I used to have some of the ones shown in Herald1360's photos with the plastic cases, others of my came from Radiospares and I have some others still attached to some cables and are slightly different to any the ones shown.

As you can see at least one of them came out of a TV set at one time or another.

I used to call all of them Belling Lee connectors, regardless of who actually made them

[Tractorfan]

Hi,
Are these types of co-axial connectors used on American tellies? I was always under the impression that the USA used 300ohm flat "ribbon" cable.
I've got some Aerialite plugs like those at bottom right. Had 'em for years & never used 'em.
Cheers, Pete

[MrElectronicman]

These are, as I call them, Belling Lee connectors, and were only used on UK sets as far a I know. The USA TV connectors are the now universal F type, but 300 ohms ribbon cable was also used for UHF initially.

I have a number of the Belling Lee connectors that I brought over from the UK when I moved to North America, as I was using them for audio at the time.

[emeritus]

Herald's right angle plug, and some of the plugs in MrElectronicman's second and third pictures, have annular grooves on the outside of the business end of the outer contact. I assume that this was some sort of positive detent to positively hold the plug in place in a suitably-configured socket. All the plugs shown in an August 1952 issue of a BL catalogue have this feature. Presumably it was later found to be unnecessary and not continued.

I have never seen a full-sized BL plug with such a groove, but it was a feature of the miniature version of the Belling-Lee plugs that I sometimes used in the 1970's. In the miniature connectors, the socket had an outer spring circlip with an inwardly-extending pip that engaged the groove of the plug.

[Nickthedentist]

Originally Posted by MrElectronicman

...I was using them for audio at the time.

Interesting to hear that, I've seen them used on Bush SRP31s and a 1950s Rogers mono pre-amp, but not much else. Were they commonly used for audio before the (American?) "phono" plug became standard?

N.

[cmjones01]

I've seen them on 1960s Heathkit hi-fi equipment used for audio. I don't know whether Heathkit stuff was the same on both sides of the Atlantic, though.

[emeritus]

Tne PA system in my school's hall included a twin deck record player console (two different Collaro autochangers, one with a "16" speed) and had a BL socket for the microphone input. I think it must have been a home brew set up dating from the mid-1950's. It was already there when I started there in 1958.

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by emeritus

All the plugs shown in an August 1952 issue of a BL catalogue have this feature.

Fascinating... I recall the 3-pin plug/socket shown in your link as being the one used in my primary-school back in the 1960s. There was a 'wired' audio system with the radio somewhere-secret (headmaster's office?) and the signal was fed over catenary-suspended cables to the classrooms and the school-hall.

When it was time for a particular class to listen to one of the BBC "Schools programmes" a large loudspeaker-box [light-coloured plywood, about 2-feet-square and six inches deep with an expanded-metal grille on the front] would be taken to the appropriate classroom and plugged into the magic socket.

We then all sat round expectantly waiting for the programme to start.

To this day, I viscerally loathe the idea of "Music and Movement".

--G6Tanuki.

[Nickthedentist]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

To this day, I viscerally loathe the idea of "Music and Movement".

Me too, but it was always nice to hear the Clarke & Smith or Hacker equipment in action.

[Herald1360]

The attraction of BL coax connectors for DiY audio was the same as for TV aerials- they were CHEAP. And pretty good, too. In fact, by the late fifties for most tinkerers, they were probably pretty much free thanks to old tellies etc.

[boxdoctor]

I still have a home-built and designed (transistorised) reel to reel tape recorder I made in the early '60s which uses Belling-Lee plugs and sockets for the low-level inputs and outputs.
As Herald 1360 says, they were cheap, and did the job OK. Being in the trade, they came at the most reasonable possibe price ;-) Also easy to mount, with 3 simple small holes.

[MrElectronicman]

Originally Posted by emeritus

Herald's right angle plug, and some of the plugs in MrElectronicman's second and third pictures, have annular grooves on the outside of the business end of the outer contact.

The second plug in the second picture is actually a floating socket, hence the clip on the business end.

[whyperion]

Coax sockets used on my dads amp and tape recorded for the BIAS/Erase connections.
Jack plugs for the audio.

[Panrock]

I also recall a Belling-Lee coaxial plug was also used to connect the microphone to the Pye Fenman II 'record maker' (magnetic disc) radiogram that my dad had in the 'fifties.

Steve

[arjoll]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

Interesting to hear that, I've seen them used on Bush SRP31s and a 1950s Rogers mono pre-amp, but not much else. Were they commonly used for audio before the (American?) "phono" plug became standard?

My Rola 77 reel to reel uses these connectors (commonly called PAL connectors here) for the heads, and my father used to use them for low-level audio when he did sound effects etc in the theatre.