Man... what a BIG discussion... whew! Early on with my K3, I found that having two speakers (L & R) plugged into the rear panel SPKR jack of the K3 was turning out to be a real P.I.T.A.
I had two speakers, with somewhat lengthy (though folded up and tied) leads which extended left and right across the back of the K3, wound in/out of all of the other wires back there as well, and BOTH leads attached to a single stereo plug, inserted into the back of the K3. When I wanted to move the speakers, or to take them with me for a trip or demo I had to first unplug the plug from the back of the K3 and then 'snake' at least one of the speakers up/down in/out of all the other accumulated wires before I could manage to resurrect both speakers fro in back of the rig. It got to be a really tiring process... really quick! I decided to fix that problem. I designed a small PC board on which two (2) stereo phone jacks were mounted, and then a 7" length of 2-conductor (w/shield) cable from the PC board to a single stereo plug which plugged into the back of the K3. The jacks on the PC board were wired such that the RING on each jack was left unconnected and so only the TIP and SLEEVE were connected to the cable. This way, I can plug EITHER stereo OR mono plugs into the jacks on the PC board and not have to worry about shorting anything on the K3 out to ground. Additionally, and this is the best part for me... now, when I need to remove the speakers, all I have to do is to unplug each speaker from the PC board and INDIVIDUALLY unwrap any wires before pulling it to the front of the desk... no longer do I have to man-handle a big honkin' speaker, trying to unwind it from the rats nest of wires in back of the rig. I also have a quick and easy to unplug both speakers from the back of the K3 if I need to do that as well. If you like my idea, visit my web site at: http://www.n0ss.net/index_k3.html and drop down to the line titled: "External (Dual) Speaker Splitter for the K3". If there's enough interest, I might consider making some PC boards for sale, otherwise, I'll be happy to make the artwork available for you to make your own PC boards IF you're interested in doing so. If someone else wants to make the boards, I'll be happy to give them the artwork, too. 73, Tom N0SS ______________________________________________________________ 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
