A typical BNC connector may comprise a female connector assembly and a male connector assembly that are designed to be engaged and disengaged with one another. The female connector assembly includes a sleeve, or cylindrical shield, that surrounds a female receptacle designed to receive the center conductor of the male connector assembly. The sleeve also includes a pair of diametrically opposed engagement pins that extend radially outward from the sleeve. The male connector assembly includes a male BNC center terminal having a center conductor. The male center terminal and conductor are designed to be received by the sleeve and female receptacle, respectively. The male connector assembly also includes a locking collar having a pair of slots that are adapted to engage the engagement pins on the female connector to lock the connectors together. To connect the center conductors, a male pin has a reduced diameter portion that extends beyond a shoulder. The male pin enters a female socket whose outer diameter matches that at the shoulder of the male pin. In this way the mated male and female center conductor portions exhibit no change in outer diameter, provided that they are indeed fully mated. The actual RF connection is made between male and female center conductor portions and between male and female cylindrical shield portions. In a typical BNC connection, a female connector is mounted to an electrical instrument and a male connector is connected to a cable. The female and male connectors and can be connected and locked together by first engaging the male BNC center terminal with the sleeve 15 and then rotating the locking collar to the locked position. The cable-mounted female BNC connector is secured to the panel-mounted male portion by way of a pair of metal "bayonets" mounted on the male BNC connector perpendicularly to the major axis of the connector.

BNC connectors facilitate attachment of electrical cables to electrical instruments. BNC coaxial connectors are commonly-used in the electronics industry for coupling low voltage signals to a measurement instrument, such as an oscilloscope. In ground-referenced oscilloscopes, the outer shell of the Panel-mounted BNC connector is physically and electrically connected to the chassis of the oscilloscope. The oscilloscope chassis is coupled to earth ground through the ground wire of its power cord. A variety of capacitive-coupled BNC connectors for installation in a PC board to connect a coaxial cable have been developed. These connectors commonly use two capacitor elements to protect the interference of outside noises. Because a computer requires high quality transmission, a filter device is needed for a coaxial connector to eliminate noises. A capacitive coupled BNC type self-terminating coaxial connector will be automatically electrically connected as a matching connector is fastened thereto, on the contrary, it will be automatically electrically disconnected as the matching connector is removed. A T-type BNC connector is generally comprised of a vertical coupling end to which a BNC connector of the cable from the mainframe of a computer network system may be connected, and two reversed transverse coupling ends to which a BNC connector on a subsidiary cable from a respective peripheral equipment may be respectively coupled.