On Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:20:07 -0600, Tom Hammond wrote: >Since the posting of the link to my K3 Speaker Splitter PC board, I >have received a number of requests (orders if you will) for PC >boards.
While I appalud your willingness to share, there is another good solution. What we really need is a "stereo to mono" breakout cable that has a 3-circuit male plug wired for stereo, split to two mono jacks. Here's the problem -- Radio Schlock, Worst Buy, and their ilk pushed the real connector mfrs out of the market with cheaply made connectors and adapter cables, but they don't sell the cable we need. The GOOD connectors are made by Switchcraft and Neutrik. In North America, we can buy these parts from vendors like Newark, Allied, Digikey, etc. The catch is that they cost more than a buck, and hams can be cheap, so they think they're too expensive. They're not -- they are of much higher quality, don't have the melting insulation and lousy contact material problems of the cheap connectors, and are far more robust mechanically. The solution is simple. Simply belly up to the bar and place an order with one of these real electronics vendors for real connectors and build your own adapters. Now a brickbat to Elecraft. Speakers are individual products, they don't come wired with 3-circuit plugs, and as noted above, it's not easy to buy parts to build adapters. What Elecraft SHOULD have done is provide TWO output jacks, not one. They played cheap (or dumb, to the extent that they were ignorant of the marketplace). Now to fix it? Rebuilding the I/O panel is costly. A better fix for their design error is to provide the unique breakout cable that is required. It has long been good practice when selling quality electronics products to ship unique connectors and or cable assemblies with the product, especially when they are not commonly available in the marketplace. This breakout cable is exactly such a unique part. 73, Jim K9YC ______________________________________________________________ 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
