[Elecraft] Anderson PowePole connectors

[Alan Biocca]

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
>k4vud at hotmail.com