I have purchased a lot of HF and VHF/UHF radios over the years that
require 5 to 30 amps of 12 volt power. They all came with factory
connectors. Almost without exception they were connectors that were
not readily available. Most were marginal mechanically and not really
adequate for the peak current. Many failed over time. There was never
a standard that crossed all radio types, let alone manufacturers.
Some of them were electrically unsafe. None of them were
significantly water resistant. Most of them required special crimpers
and were not capable of larger wire sizes required for longer runs or
reduced losses. Few had much in the way of strain relief for the
wires. None of them were really good enough to be a standard. Recenty
manufactureres such as Icom have introduced new connectors, adding to
the confusion.
PowerPoles are imperfect. They are, however, the best chance we have
ever had of a standard, and for their price point and for their
compact size they have better performance - lower resistance over a
large number of use cycles - than just about anything we have ever
used or had available in the amateur market. Their availability is
increasing dramatically over time. They can be applied without
special tools. They can be applied very efficiently with a reasonably
priced crimper for those that have a lot of terminations to make.They
are color coded, and polarized to help avoid polarity reversal.
We can either pull for them as a standard, or vote for the
continuation of connector chaos. Until something significantly better
comes along we are better off as a radio community to standardize on
them than nothing.
73
-- Alan, wb6zqz
At 09:27 PM 7/18/2007, Charles Harpole wrote:
I did not say the Power Poles are bad... they are likely superior in
some ways to other connectors, but my point, which so many missed,
is the same as the theory of "installed base" whereby one item
becomes the de facto standard sometimes regardless of its rating as
best or not.
For examples, see the computer evolution where the Divorak keyboard
could have been adopted and increased typing input speed by 5 to 20
%.... if only adopted at the beginning. Instead, we have the QWERTY
which was set up on manual typerwriters to SLOW DOWN the typist.
As a high paid consultant, in my dreams, I can increase the speed of
word data input by about 15% with retraining of the typists.... tell
that to industry... they should grab it, but the rule of installed
base kept the QWERTY and we are cursed with it.
For my K3, I will just make the Power Poles that come with the
unit... they do come with, don't they?.... as a permanently attached
item with a short pig tail that I then put on a more
well-established connector style that fits my other rigs and that I
can easily purchase here in Asia.
Charles Harpole, HS0ZCW
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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