Down in the lab here at work we have a whole rack of precision
misterminations (1.1:1, 1.2:1, 1.5:1, etc.) that some talented engineer
built and calibrated some decades ago. They're built on the Maury
bluedot N terminations.


I have always though that a budget priced set of mismatches would be real
handy, and have wondered why MFJ (or someone else for that matter) don't
offer a set for checking / calibration of the MFJ259B etc.

Owen

I've looked into this, and it's non-trivial to do in small quantities at
a (ham)reasonable price. My late father-in-law owned a small company
doing video and audio equipment for the broadcast industry, and one of
their larger selling product was a high quality 75 ohm BNC termination.
However, it took a fair amount of research on his part to find
appropriate components from which to assemble them, and even so, I doubt
his manufacturing cost was low enough to get to a reasonable retail
price for the ham market.


FWIW, 75 ohm terminations are readily available, as a mismatch standard
that might be useful. In F connectors they are available for less than
a dollar, but I'd be a bit leery of their precision (1% DC resistance is
easy to get, but over DC-100 MHz, a bit trickier). Good quality
(mechanical and electrical) seem to run about $4-5 each.

In small quantities, it would be hard to make and sell such things for
less than about $5 each (by the time you factor in mfr time, material
costs), and then there would be shipping. You might be able to do
better with selling a set (say, open, short, 50, 25, 75, 100, etc.)
because there would be economies of scale, both in mfr and in
shipping/handling.

Maybe $30/set plus shipping?

I can see all the folks going.. $30, for half a dozen connectors and
resistors? I have a box of connectors out in the shack, and resistors,
and I'll just fire up the soldering iron...