i believe that both Diamond and Comet manufacture SMA to SO239 adaptors.  I
have bought a couple of them at Dayton.  Sure that AES or HRO or any of the
other vendors could help.
Pat, K9JAUAt 04:04 PM 10/17/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello again folks.
>
>Moments ago, I finished a conversation with an electrical engineer who seems
>to know a lot about the design of current, multi-band handhelds. He tells me
>that, electronically, designers now have the ability to build broadband,
>output circuits that will accommodate spreads in frequency as wide as 50 mhz
>to 500 mhz, thus allowing for any antenna that is close to 50 ohms and
>reasonably resonant. He echoed the comments of several people here,
>lamenting the rather fragil sma connectors, now on most of the modern
>equipment. His suggestion was to purchase a cable, the length to be
>specified by the customer, from a company that puts a sma connector at one
>end and a selectable connector at the other, the cable itself, apparently
>quite robust but rather thin and flexible. He's going to look for the name
>of this company and get back to me. I'll pass it along for anyone
>interested.
>
>Thanks to all who contributed to the discussion. I now feel a bit easier
>about attaching something a little more efficient than the bendable gadget
>that comes with the handheld.
>
>73's.
>
>Jerry