AKG MK PS BNC Antenna Cable 2 ft for Antenna Splitters Combiners

AKG MK PS: A Short Coaxial Jumper for Antenna Distribution

The AKG MK PS is a 2 ft (0.6 m) coaxial antenna cable built from RG 58 with a 50 ohm characteristic impedance and gold-plated BNC connectors on both ends. Despite the letters in its name it is neither a power supply nor a headset cable: it carries antenna radio-frequency signal only, with no audio and no power passing through it. Its two published applications are connecting a wireless receiver to an APS4 antenna splitter and connecting an SST4500 in-ear monitoring transmitter to an SPC4500 antenna combiner. In both cases it is the short link that turns a stack of individual devices into a single coordinated antenna system.

Why Antenna Distribution Needs a Short Cable

Length is the specification doing the most work here, and 2 ft is short on purpose. Coaxial cable attenuates radio-frequency signal continuously along its length, so every additional metre between an antenna and a receiver front end costs signal strength and therefore range, and RG 58 in particular is chosen for flexibility in tight spaces rather than for low loss over distance. A jumper sized to reach from one rack unit to its neighbour keeps that loss negligible while still allowing the cable to be dressed neatly, whereas a long coil of surplus coax behind a rack costs both signal and tidiness. Monitor and radio-frequency technicians building a multi-channel rack therefore buy jumpers by the exact length needed rather than one long cable for every position.

Splitters, Combiners and What Each Direction Does

Both published uses point in opposite directions, and understanding which is which prevents a wiring mistake. An antenna splitter such as the APS4 takes one pair of receiving antennas and distributes their signal to several receivers, so each receiver needs a jumper from a splitter output to its own antenna input, and this removes the forest of individual antennas that would otherwise sprout from the back of a rack and interfere with one another. An antenna combiner such as the SPC4500 works the other way, taking the transmitted output of several in-ear monitoring transmitters and merging them onto a single transmitting antenna, which stops multiple nearby transmitting antennas from intermodulating. A touring monitor engineer running eight in-ear mixes and a dozen microphone channels uses jumpers of this kind in both roles inside the same rack.

Impedance, Plating and Who Orders Them

Characteristic impedance of 50 ohms is not a detail to compromise on, because a mismatch between cable and port reflects part of the signal back down the line instead of delivering it, which shows up as reduced range and unexplained dropouts rather than as an obvious failure. Gold plating on both BNC shells addresses a slower problem, since an antenna connection carries a signal measured in microvolts and even a light film of oxide on a contact surface can degrade it, particularly on a jumper that gets disconnected and reconnected every time a rack is packed. Touring production companies, rental houses, houses of worship with racked wireless and broadcast facilities all keep several of these on hand as consumable rack hardware. Because the part is passive with no electronics inside, nothing ships with it beyond the cable itself.