LL/K3ESE wrote: I have an Elecraft BL1 balun... I've been using a ZM-2 to tune these, and so the feedline terminates in bananner plugs. I'm thinking I should solder an alligator clip to a short length of stout hookup wire, screw the hookup wire to the terminals on the balun, and clip the gators to the 'nanner plugs. Anyone have a more elegant solution?
Also, I see that you can order a tilt-stand for the EC2, but not for the K2 - does this mean that the K2 is supplied with a tilt-stand? --------------------------------------- BL1 connectors: I like banana plugs and jacks for open wire lines, end fed wires and other antenna not using coaxial cable too. For my BL1 I found in my junque box some low-profile banana jacks that mount using a 4-40 threaded stud. They look a lot like Mouser P/N 164R101B although I'm sure mine came from a Radio Shack some time in the long past. The Mouser version from Kobiconn doesn't give the threaded shaft size, but it looks like it might be #6 and might actually simply thread into the current terminal in place of the little thumb nut. My jacks with the 4-40 shafts slipped through the threaded holes for the thumb nuts and I secured each one with a nut on the back. The 4-40 nut just fits in the space. Now I have three banana jacks - two red for the feeders and one black for the ground - that will accept banana plugs or, by unscrewing the nylon 'nut' a wire through the hole in the jack body. The "wire through hole" attachment is more secure than the thumb nut in any case. Whatever version you use just be sure that the insulated plastic parts of the jacks do *not* touch each other. The great downside to using banana plugs and jacks at RF is that all the banana jacks that I've seen use Nylon for insulation. Nylon is hydroscopic and makes an abysmal insulator at RF. Even the Kobiconn jacks from Mouser lists Nylon as the insulation. The insulated parts of the jacks on mine clear each other by about 1/16 inch. Tilt Stand: Yep. The K2 comes with the tilt-up stand. Ron AC7AC _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
