I got a little scare a few weeks ago as I was setting up; the power cord for the 6100 was not in its usual location! I found it only seconds later, attached to the external battery, but it got me thinking about backup for critical parts of the station equipment. This is one of the results, a power cable with connectors for 3 different radios:
It was an easy project, no purchases required. I had the connectors and the wire right at hand, so it went quickly; possibly half of the time was consumed in double – checking the polarity of the radio’s power connections.
For the record, and in aid of anyone trying to do something similar and looking to the internet’s fountain of wisdom for information, all three radios are center pin +
| radio | connector |
| Xiegu X6100 | 5.5 x 2.5 mm |
| Penntek TR-35 | 5.5 x 2.1 mm |
| Yaesu FT-817 | 4.0 x 1.7 mm |
The connector for the 817 was already cabled so I let that define the wire length for the other two. Strip and solder, strip and solder, copper colored wire to center pin, screw on the little plastic grip, repeat, clamp all three together with a wire-tie, and now the Powerpole connectors:
Tongue Top, Red Right
I’m going to digress for a moment on standard practices. Probably 15 or 20 years ago when powerpole connectors were beginning their march to preeminence in low-voltage DC wiring, word went around all of the ARES and emcomm groups to set up all of your powerpoles “Tongue Top, Red Right” for interoperability and equipment sharing purposes, and I have faithfully followed it ever since.
To make this work requires a moment of thought and orientation before making the first crimp.
The final result! “A thing of beauty, a joy forever” as an old foreman used to say!
Thanks for visiting driftlessqrp.com!
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