History

• RCA plugs were first brought into use in the 1940s by the Radio Corporation of America, a company well know by its picture of a dog listening to a gramophone speaker with the title, "His master's voice." The gramophone soon gave way to the phonograph which needed a cable to connect to the amplifier. RCA developed the plug for this purpose and originally called it a "phono" plug. Because the connection principle makes such a convenient connection, RCA plugs remain in use today for hundreds of applications.
  
  

Specifications

• An RCA plug makes a connection for a coaxial cable with a center conductor surrounded by insulating material and a shield. The center pin of the plug measures about one 1/12 an inch in diameter and 1/2 inch long. The outer ring measures about 1/4 inch in diameter, and has slits to make spring pressure against the collar of the jack to hold it in place. RCA plugs make effective connections for frequencies up to 100 MHz. The connections usually have nickel plating, but some have gold for better signal transfer and corrosion prevention.
  
  

Uses

• RCA plugs make audio and video connections in home entertainment systems.Polka Dot Images/Polka Dot/Getty Images
  
  RCA cables usually have the push-in plug on both ends. Sometimes manufacturers fuse two RCA cables together to connect audio equipment such as turntables, audio cassette players, tape recorders and FM receivers to amplifiers and in some cases to low power speakers. Three cables fused together make connections from VCRs, cable and satellite receivers and video games to television sets or monitors. Some RCA cables have a specialized connector on one end and one or more RCA plugs on the other, such as a cable to connect a compact still or video camera to a television set.
  
  

Color Codes

• For home entertainment system standardization, plugs for audio signals use red to identify the right channel and white for the left. Composite video, which uses only one signal, use yellow. Component video, which uses three signals for video, uses green to identify the Y signal which carries information for the color green along with the synchronization, red to identify the Cr or Yr signal which carries red video information and blue for blue information. For special applications, users can buy RCA plugs of other colors and attach them to coaxial cables using custom color coding.