I was given an unwanted oscilloscope and to test it I bought a function generator kit from Maplin. I built it and connected an oscilloscope test probe to the output terminals of the generator and a nice sine wave appeared.

The test probe consists of a BNC plug at the oscilioscope end and a red positive and black negative clip at the other end. I assume the red connects to the centre pin and thus the central wire in the coaxial cable whereas the black connects to the shield part of the coaxial cable.

The terminal block on the generator has two outputs, and are not indicated as negative or positive. Whichever way I connect the test probe, I get a signal. Fine

Qu 1: Why is there two connections on the signal output?

However, If I unclip the black clip, thus removing the connection to the shield part, I still get a signal, however it is roughly half the amplitude.

I always though, that BNC / coaxial connections simply send a signal. I.e. the core and shroud aren’t used to complete circuits. This seems to be the case as a signal appears on the oscilloscope if only the core of the coaxial (via the red clip) is connected to either side of the terminal block.

Qu 2: Why therefore is the signal halved?

Qus 3: When you use a BNC to send a signal from one device to another (for example a camera to a video recorder), surely you aren’t creating a complete circuit between the two devices? If you removed the outer shroud, wouldn’t it just make it more probe to interference? The video signal would not be reduced would it?

I’m baffled.