[Elecraft] Kpa100, powerpoles and crimpers

[Don Brown]

Hi

I use or have adapted everything in my shack that uses 13.8 volts to PowerPoles. I have several RigRunners and have bought several pre-assembled cables from West Mountain Radio as well as made up bunch of them myself. The convention used is "TOP RED RIGHT" meaning when looking into the connector with the metal contacts at the TOP, horizontal and side by side, the RED connector is on the RIGHT. PowerPoles are unisex so the same orientation is used for all connectors. This is the same convention used by Elecraft on the KPA100 and the XVxxx transverters as well as the RigRunner products.

I thought at one time you could put them together several ways but after experimenting with them I have found they can only  be assembled two ways and have the dovetails fit and the polarity the same on all sets of connectors. The first way is the standard Elecraft and RigRunner uses. This is the TOP RED RIGHT with the blades of the contacts horizontal side by side. The only other way to assemble them is to have the blade of the contact one over the other with the red on top. If you try to assemble them with the black on the right in the first method or the black on the top in the second the red and black do not mate with proper color when the connectors are plugged into another connector. Any other combination and the dovetails do not match or the connectors will not plug together. The second assembly method could be useful where you would not want to plug something into your radio that could be confused. An example would be a solar panel that needs to connect to a controller first then the controller output would have the standard configuration to connect to the battery and/or RigRunner. 

I have soldered them and crimped them with the $10 GB tool. I prefer to crimp them although the GB tool is a little tricky to use. I have made up probably close to a hundred of them for myself and others. At HamCom this year I bought the proper ratcheting hand crimper. It is about $50. This is the way to go. It really does a nice job and it works on 15, 30 and 45 amp contacts. I am glad I added this tool to my collection of crimpers. Soldering IS ok if you don't have the tools but the correct tool does a better job.

Don Brown
KD5NDB