I used the included power cable and did notice a drop in the voltage of about a volt. I had bought a "35" amp, 25 amp continuous Astron power supply which has variable voltage but does not include a remote probe as the one I made from the ARRL handbook offered. The probe was used to ID voltage drop and the PS responded by upping the voltage as needed so 13.8 would be at the rig at all times.
Using that probe with my old TR7 kept the voltage dead on at the rig. I was saddened to have left that in Indiana as a gift to a friend for the PS components were made from an old Wang computer I canabalized in the 80's and I designed it for an easy 80 amps and it weighed over 100 pounds and was on casters. It was too much to move and is in use today by my friend but I digress; I felt the best option with the K3 and the Astron VS35M was to use a different power cable so I cut the cable aproximately 5" from the Power Pole and soldered that short end to an 8 gauge cable made of very fine wire which I bought from Home Depot. This was part of heavy cable at about $5/foot with four conductors and a heavy neoprene outer jacket. I stripped the jacket, used two of the connectors and attached a 4' length to the Astron & k3. >From the K3 internal volt meter it reads: 14.0V at idle: At 25W the drop is .2 = 13.8 At 50W the drop is .3 = 13.7 At 75W the drop is .3 = 13.7 At 100W the drop is .4 = 13.6 at 120W the drop is .4 = 13.6 Not as regulated at the rig as my old homebrew PS but certainly a very little voltage drop. When running the amp I never use more than 50W drive so I'm content. One caveat is I felt the need to devise a mount to keep the power cord from moving around behind the radio. I know the PowerPoles are loved by many but I see these smaller variety as a weak point and don't much like them attached to the rig. The old TenTec attachments were not as sexy as these PowerPoles but I felt they had more heft and I didn't feel concern that someday the internal soldering would come loose from repeated motion as the rig is located from one site to another. Perhaps if the next larger size of PowerPole were utilized I would feel it more sturdy? 73, GAry KA1J _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net 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
