[Elecraft] K3 Accessory Connector

[Goody K3NG]

Cinch Jones made sense back when you needed pins to handle 10 or 15 amps 
of filament supply and manufacturing couldn't technically or 
economically produce some of the connectors we have today.  It's an 
antiquated connector for things like audio and control lines.

I always thought the Molex connector was one of the cheesiest connectors 
around and I would choose binding posts as a standard over these.  It's 
more a mate-once and forget about it connector.  I think the robustness 
of a Molex and an APP is about the same (doing the step on in test), 
however the genderless nature of APP puts it over the top.  APP is now a 
standard, period.

Have you used an APP?  It's a piece of cake to insert a bare wire into 
one of these, either on the mating end or the cable end and on *any* 
connector since they have no gender.  With a DB-9/15/25 it's easy to 
insert a small gauge wire into a female connector (which is what I 
believe is used on the K3), and arguably easier to get positive contact 
than you will on a slotted Jones female pin.

The soldering argument against the D sub connector is a moot issue.  As 
I mentioned earlier, cheap prefab cables are available at your local 
mall.  Even Wally World probably has them.  You can even snip the cables 
off of dead monitors in the dumpster at the office.  It doesn't get much 
easier and is in the true scrounger spirit of Amateur Radio.



Charles Harpole wrote:
>
>
> THEN, you can welcome these toy (D) or non standard (APP) connectors.  
> What is better, altho old stuff--- Cinch Jones (or even Molex) and 
> below that, screw terminal strips and/or  binding posts.  If u r stuck 
> with only bare wire and MUST make a connection, sticking a bare wire 
> tip into a Jones socket is DO-ABLE, or even into a Molex.... try that 
> with D s and even with the APPs.
>