When i first became a ham one of the mysteries of the hobby was how to properly connect the bare wire transceiver power leads to the Power Supply Unit (PSU). This wasn’t something that was covered by the foundation license and was just assumed knowledge.
Embarrassingly i initially just wrapped the power leads around the PSU poles, which worked but wasn’t a neat solution!
I knew i needed some kind of connectors i could solder to the power cables, but what on Earth were these called? I searched eBay using various search terms with no luck and then one day i walked into Maplin’s (an electrical shop here in the UK) and there they were right in front of me “Eyelet crimp connectors“:
Of course i purchased the size that looked like it could accommodate the power leads for my Flex 3000, ICOM 7100 and Elecraft KX3 transceivers. I rushed home and proceeded to solder and crimp them in place, below you see the cables for the KX3 (left) and ICOM 7100 (right):
Here’s the finished thing, much neater than the previous solution:
Another amateur radio related frustration solved, life is tough when you don’t have an older ham you can ask!
Thank you, exactly what I was looking for
Thanks this is super helpful! I was also looking for information on this – and you are right it is not really covered in any of the intro books on ham radio.
I’m glad it was useful Aaron. Over the years I have slowly migrated to Anderson PowerPoles as these offer a number of advantages. These are worth looking into as well!
73 James M0JCQ
Great post. I’m a newbie ham and am looking at bare copper wires protruding from my transceiver’s cord. I tried poking the into a too-small hole on the pole, and putting them through the screw-down plastic thing. No go.
I’ve never soldered before so I hope I can find a method which doesn’t involve that.
I got a kick out of you just tying the leads onto the poles! What motivation! What a fellow!
What size fits that power supply?