I have been using a number of low cost SMA attenuators of Chinese origin for 4-5 years, sold with a 2W 6GHz rating.? The match is not great (quoted as <1.25:1), but they are good enough for general purposes at lower frequencies.? I recently had two fail to very high attenuation in fairly quick succession so decided to look at their construction.? The pi attenuator board is connected to the pins and the body with conductive glue, and the outer cover is pressed on (not very tightly).? In each case, the pin connection was open circuit and was not very tight in the insulator which would have exacerbated the stresses of minor misalignment when mating with other low-cost SMA connectors.? The glue seemed to be in good condition.
They still cost less than ?10 apiece and they preserve my better quality attenuators as calibration references.?
PeterS?? G8EZE
