HISTORY:
Sustainability is the name of the game! Anything (that has been tested and still functioning properly) should be repurposed creating saving in wasted Ee and reducing the poisoning our environment when items are buried in the earth at the local tip needlessly.
Never heard of Ee? It is a concept that creates a measurement of ALL things (not just electronics) that humans have made and the energy used in obtaining the raw material, processing the materials right through to a finished product and even should include the shipping of the item to the distributors/retailers.
If you would like to know more about Ee values, please take a look HERE
Another high quality (but peculiar) accessory that was amongst my box of RF goodies from long ago (this box contained items from the 1960's ~ 1980's) ...
Why peculiar?
At first glance it looks like any other nice shiny BNC terminator (Silver plated) but at the back of the connector it is not sealed and a wire loop (from the load resistor inside) is projecting and exposed. Hmmm (I thought to myself) perhaps this is to provide access to the RF signal while it is plugged into the mating BNC socket ... I opened it up (very easy to do) and I can see the load resistor BUT that wire loop is connected to Ground, not the active pin. So the only thing you can access from the rear of the plug is Ground, it is not "hot"
I have no idea what ACME had in mind here but there you go ...
Enough of the introduction ... I will now describe the plug in closer detail
This is a pretty old connector, in fact after digging around for information it would seem the ACME began operations in 1951 and subsequently acquired by LINK, an Australian company specialising in AV & Broadcast industry products ... HERE is a link to some of LINK's connector products and some information about ACME
While this peculiar terminator is not from the 1950's, I suspect that it was produced somewhere in the period 1970's ~ 1980's
ACME ENGINEERING - RF Termination Plug
Plug type: BNC Male
Part # ACME C54-04 (stamped into the body of the plug)
Body base material unknown, possibly Brass however it is definitely ...
ALL Silver plated
75 Ohm load terminator
The complete BNC connector "comes apart" to reveal the internal resistor, although this is in it's own shielding so I cannot read the type of resistor used. The centre insulator is Teflon.The rear of the connector has a pretty standard nut fitting but it really doesn't seem to do anything as giving access to the wire loop doesn't really help much (discussed above)
TESTING:
DC resistance tests show that the resistor has a DC resistance of 74.7 Ohms and judging by the size of the resistor, around 1/2W power rating
It doesn't look too hard to swap out this resistor for another more suitable to the purpose at hand e.g a 50 Ohm load resistor
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN - Silver had tarnished (Yellowish colouring) when removed this from the storage packet but I have polished up the Silverware! It is now a nice shiny "thing"
This plug has now been packed back into a sealed, clear plastic pack awaiting someone else to put into their museum of "old RF stuff"
