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Old September 7th 06, 12:20 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.misc
[email protected] w4cwg@w4cwg.com is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Sep 2006
Posts: 1
Default Kenwood / Icom HF Power Connector pins

wd4nmq wrote a few months ago about getting the wrong size connector
pins (female) when buying a "standard" 6 pin what is commonlly called a
Molex plug for making up your own HF power cable. I just wonder why
more people aren't screaming about this. I bought 3 plugs from two
different dealers (don't remember who) at local hamfests about a year
ago and ALL of them had too big female pins. After discovering the
problem recently (cables already made, of course) I crudely bent in the
pins so they would grab the male pins on the rigs. Wanting a better
fix, last weekend at the Shelby, NC hamfest I bought a handfull of pins
from Tower Electronics, not having seen the previous post. Well, they
turned out to be even bigger.

The closest I can find in diameter is canabalizing an old PC hard disk
power connector and they're still a tad big measuring roughly .080-.085
- this is consistent with wd4nmq's measurement of the real pins on a HF
rig of .075 (from memory). The PC pins are also too low current.

Anyone find a source for pins? or whole connectors? Anyone else having
problems with oversize pins (like arcing or melting the connector or
your rig?) Maybe there's enough misalignment of the pins to cause some
contact but I don't trust them.

C.W. - w4cwg