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Old July 21st 05, 08:04 PM
RadioGuy
 
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Dave Platt wrote in message
...
In article ,
RadioGuy wrote:

When I first got the 'Powerpole' connectors about a year ago and played

with
them something odd about them caught my attention but I could not explain
why. A couple of days ago while making connections I discovered that the
'genderless' capabilities of the connector allowed them to be connected
side-to-side, in otherwords, red-to-black, or black-to-red.


True 'nuff. If you do this, and also have a secondary ground path
present (e.g. through the antenna system), bad things could occur.

The chances of this can be reduced by:

- Not trying to plug 'em together by touch alone.

- Pick a standard orientation (most ARES groups have standardized on
a "Red on the right, when looking into the connector, contact
tongues are on the top" orientation).

- Assemble the connectors in advance of need.

- Secure the red and black connectors together after slip-fitting them,
so that they can't come apart and be reconnected incorrectly.
Anderson provides "roll pins" for this purpose, to lock 'em
together, but I've heard some people say that these can vibrate out
of the connectors. I prefer to use a drop of Crazy Glue or acetone
to permanently bond 'em together.

[snip]

Thanks for the reply Dave. That's precisely the point I'm trying to make.
My connectors are oriented in the preferred ARES configruation and crazy
glued together but that doesn't mean anything. You can still can mate the
assembled connectors together side-to-side, red-to-black and black-to-red.

The only options of preventing this from happening are to carefully observe
the mating of the connectors and use fused leads to protect against shorts
resulting from misalignment.

RG