[Elecraft] Cable provider recommendation

[john simmons]

I'm firmly in the 'DIY' camp. I've made thousands of custom cables, for myself, other hams and professionally. When I started doing solder-on PL259s, I bought 50' of coax and a dozen connectors. I used them all to make jumper cables. Now, I'll tell ya', they weren't well done, but considering my workbench at the time they were usable at HF. Now I'm able to purchase great tools but age has robbed me of hand coordination, so the results aren't what I would like. D-sub connectors, 8-pin Fosters, mini-DIN, 3.5mm and etc are just beyond me now.

SO! My secret: Buy pre-made cables with one end connectorized as I need. I cut the other end off, do the same with another cable with the other-end connectorized for the other end, then splice the two cables in the middle. Heat shrink hides my messy work. Other things are adaptors from Amazon with a connector that mates and then has a small terminal strip that I can put bare wires into.

Another secret: buy cables by the boxload for a couple bucks at hamfests. The cable (even without any connectors) is great for making multi-conductor interconnecting cables.

YMMV

73,

-de John NI0K

On 12/10/2025 3:17 PM, K5ZM via Elecraft wrote:

I made a recommendation for a private party (KG5CCI). You didn't see it
because I'd mistakenly hit 'reply' instead of 'reply all'.

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net<mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net> <elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net><mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On
Behalf Of Richards via Elecraft
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2025 12:37 PM
To: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net<mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Cable provider recommendation

Perhaps I missed it, but I did not see a single recommendation for a
ham-built cable.  Do hams no longer make cables?  It seems a simple task.  I
have made many cables for other hams - locally and on the Internet - mostly
for disabled hams who cannot solder for themselves.
Shoot, I even taught an old blind ham to make his own cables using crimp
connectors (he asked, but I lack the confidence to teach him how to solder .
. . )

I am NOT being snarky or dissing anyone suggesting a commercial outfit -
merely wondering where all the DIY hams are, and why nobody suggested he
contact his local club or repeater crowd for a leg up from a local guy.
Shoot, maybe he can send me the parts and return postage and I can make
it for him.  BTW, I work for bourbon . . .     :-)

It is a plug-n-play world I guess.  K8JHR
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