That sounds like a case of the connectors not mating properly or a badly crimped contact on a wire.
Elecraft recommends soldering the contacts to the wire unless the individual has a high-quality crimper *and* experience using it properly. Just because one cannot pull the contact off of the wire does not mean it's properly crimped. The crimp must place enough surface area of the terminal tight against the wire to form a low-resistance connection. Normal DMMs can't measure the miniscule resistance allowed. The best way is as the VK fellow as done - check the voltage drop under full load. Improper mating is usually caused by one of the contacts not being fully inserted in the housing. The contact may be shoved in as far as it will go, but if it was crimped poorly or soldered with too much solder on the outside of the terminal, the bad crimp or solder jams against the side of the housing before the contact is fully in place. If the contacts are soldered, another source of trouble is solder having gotten onto the contact area of the terminal. The normally low contact resistance is achieved by a relatively large area of each terminal in solid contact with the mating terminal. Solder on the mating surfaces creates an uneven surface that prevents the large surface-to-surface contact area needed. There are illustrations in the Elecraft manuals and on the PowerPole web site showing what a properly installed APP contact looks like in the housing - it should come all the way forward to the lip about 1 mm from the end of the housing and latch into place with a click. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- A fellow ham here in VK recently complained of a significant voltage drop (2V) through Anderson Powerpole connectors. Has anyone else experienced this on the powerpole connectors fitted to the K3 or elsewhere for that matter? -- 73 Dale - VK4DMC ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
