Ok; let me start right off the bat with a qualifier that this is a "what if" question, not something I am actually trying to do.
I've been wondering about why amateur radio continues to use the old UHF connector design (SO-239/PL-259) when it's known to not have great qualities at VHF/UHF. There's all kinds of arguments out there over whether or not it's actually a problem, but I did find one page that gives some actual data, finding the connector has an
insertion loss of about 1 db at 430 MHz.
Now I have an essentially brand new (I've used it maybe 3 times) FT-7900R which puts out up to 40 W in the 70 cm band. (I am seriously considering selling this radio, by the way; if anyone is interested, let me know.) The radio, of course, came with an SO-239 (Yaesu calls it an "M" type) antenna connector with the diamond-shaped, two-hole panel mount version. I can easily find an N type connector with the same panel mount style, and it got me thinking:
Since the radio can put out 50 W on the 2 m band, I suspect that the power limit on 70 cm is due primarily to the output connector, since -1.0 db from 50 W is 40 W. If I were to replace that connector with an N connector, would I see the 70 cm output increase to the full 50 W? What consequences might that have on the rest of the radio?
Does this indicate that a radio like the TM-V71A which has a 50 W output on both bands uses separate amplifiers on the bands, so it puts 63 W at 70 cm to counter the insertion loss and get the full 50 W output?