[time-nuts] Opera coordinator has resigned

[David Kirkby]

On 2 April 2012 00:54, Jim Lux <jimlux at earthlink.net> wrote:
> On 4/1/12 2:25 PM, Dr. David Kirkby wrote:
>> So it tells us nothing very much about the life of them in normal use,
>> with a human mating and demating them. - or even the repeatability of
>> the reflection coefficient with a human in the equation.
>>
>
>
> Not a whole lot, but the whole paper goes into the various factors involved.
>  Ultimately, it winds up that the mismatch from SMAs is
> a) a whole lot less than the usual "worst case" spec of 1.05:1 or 1.03:1
> (which is basically a measurement limit)
> and
> b) doesn't change much with many mate/demate cycles
>
> He did look at things like coupling nut friction and what not.

Without seeing the paper, it's difficult to comment much more. Clearly
if he had shown the performance to be worst than the spec, then I
think he would have a useful result, as he would have put a limit on
what was achieveable even with perfect use. But I think the human
element is quite critical with SMA connectors - or pretty much any
connector for that matter.

Anyway, SMAs are pretty good connectors overall for most RF things.
It's a long time since I have used any LEMO connectors - the subject
of orginal discussion.

I've not been following the orignal thread in detail, or looked at the
relevant papers, but I do feel it odd and unjust that someone should
resign over what was a genuine mistake. We all make them from time to
time, and sometimes the consequencies are quite serious - like someone
dies.


dave