One does not need to jam too-large cable into the power pole connector. Do the power pole normally with the #10 zip cord. Then two or three inches away from the power pole, splice in two more parallel runs of the #10 zip cord. Solder and tape these splices.
This will divide your voltage drop by three. 14.6 at PS can be 14.3 at K3, better for TX IMD. The IR loss is spread along the entire wire. A few inches of single #10 to service the connector will not make any difference. Another approach is to fasten down a length of #4 - 3 plus ground "Romex" cable. You can get this stuff cut to exact length at the big box store. At either end terminate with soldered splices to a few inches of #10 zip cord. Black and green to black, red and white to red. That will allow you to put PS anywhere you want. You do need a pretty permanent placement of equipment for this. 73, Guy. On Wednesday, December 21, 2016, j...@kk9a.com <j...@kk9a.com> wrote: > At my station I use a large 70 amp Astron power supply which sits on the > floor. Several month ago, while trouble shooting another issue, I > discovered that the voltage drop in my 8' cables was significant. So > rather than crank up the voltage I switched to 8ga and now at full > transmit wattage the K3S sees 13.5v. The tough part was squeezing 8ga wire > into a PowerPole connector that is made for 10ga max. For a shorter lead, > like I use when I travel to the Caribbean, 10ga has a minimal voltage > drop. > > John KK9A > > From: Gary Smith ka1j > > Hi Jim & the others who replied, > > This is a follow-up for someone in the > future who looks for the same solution. > > Yeah, the small amount of difference in > the wattage is insignificant but > considering all the radios I've owned, the > low end of the bands were always the > highest output. 10M was usually the lowest > output & with the K3/K3s, 6M was always as > good as the other bands watt wise and 160 > was full output. This not being the case, > I was concerned. > > I had done the calibration and raised the > output to 87W but that was it. As was > suggested, I raised the voltage from the > PS to give me 13.8V on transmit which > required 14.6V resting. I'm using the > cable Elecraft supplies and I'm suspecting > it could be just a tad lower gauge/thicker > copper to reduce the resistance but on > 160M, I am now getting a 115W reading on > the P3 and 113W on the LP-100A. > > So the increased voltage was the > difference in my case. A thicker wire > would certainly require less voltage than > 14.6 and that's what I am going to look > into. With the power Pole connector, I'll > have to look a little deeper into what > will work best. I have no crimping tool > for Power Pole so that makes it more of a > challenge. > > Anyway, thanks Jim & all who suggested the > higher voltage, it was the answer in this > instance. > > 73, > > Gary > KA1J > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net <javascript:;> > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to k2av....@gmail.com <javascript:;> > -- Sent via Gmail Mobile on my iPhone ______________________________________________________________ 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 Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
