What you need to know about Reverse Polarized Connectors

A reverse polarized coax connector is a variation of a standard polarity connector in which the gender of the interface has been reversed. The term “reverse polarity” refers not to the signal polarity of the connector itself but to the gender of the center contact pin.

A reverse polarized connector will have the same external housing (body) as a standard connector (jack or plug threading) but the center pin is altered to be reversed.

Thus, a reverse polarized jack has a male pin in place of the standard female type pin/receptacle and a reverse polarized plug will have a center receptacle (female) instead of a male pin.

The chart below outlines reverse polarized connecter body and pin options:

Reverse polarized coax connectors were developed to separate professional grade and commercially available components and equipment to comply with FCC regulations. The idea was that reverse polarized connectors would not be readily available or accessible to the general consumer audience so they would not try to or be able to connect certain gain components or equipment. This meant it would be very hard for consumers to say change to a higher gain antenna on a radio. Since then the rules have changed and today several variations of reverse polarized connectors are readily available allowing more design options to more people.

The most common reverse polarized connector types are RP-SMA and RP-TNC. They are typically used for Wi-Fi, Cellular, RF and GPS antenna and equipment applications.