On Tue, Jun 26, 2018 at 3:07 PM, systems_glitch via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > I've confirmed that I now have N connector intrusive taps! These have a N > female connector on each end, like the leftmost transceiver in this picture: > > https://oelzant.priv.at/~aoe/images/galleries/hardware/802_3_transceivers/DSC_0927_med.jpg
Handy. I'll have to get some pictures this weekend of the stuff I've collected so far. I have 1-2 of the ST-500-01 Transceivers with the non-intrusive taps, and 4-5 of what I am pretty sure now are called ST-500-02 Transceivers, with a single male BNC sticking up where the ST-500-01 has the tap "fang". I'm now thinking for the cost of a few BNC-to-N couplers (couple of bucks from banggood.com) and a one BNC T each (of which I have an abundance), it might be cheapest to get the ST-500-02 acting like an intrusive tap. It might not meet the spec for a full-sized network, but for a 15-20m segment, I can't imagine it's going to break things. It's probably not a terrible thing to get some of the cable, cut it into some 5m segments and terminate the ends with N connectors. Yes, there will be impedance bumps at every joint, but I'm not trying to run 100m, just a segment I can set up somewhere to show how it was once done. Fortunately, I also have an abundance of DEC and desktop hosts with 15-pin AUI as an option (as well as a 10BaseT hub with an AUI, that's at the center of my low-speed network at home). > I seem to recall the CCNA instructor telling us that you weren't really > supposed to screw a 50 ohm terminator onto an intrusive tap; I don't know > if there's good reason for it or if it was just a general practice. I think the reason is you won't have enough distance between the tap and the endpoint of the transmission line. -ethan
