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Latest on the new home for my K3...

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Gary Peterson

Latest on the new home for my K3...

I have been following this thread with interest.
Years ago, I designed a patch panel for the ham shack.
Knowing that I sometimes have a propensity to make stupid mistakes, being a retired broadcast engineer, and being a firm believer in the If anything can go wrong, it will club, I made the patch panel as foolproof as I could.

All receivers and sources of RF terminate in N female, panel mount connectors. All loads, such as antennas or the dummy load terminate in SO239 panel mount connectors. All patch cables have an N male on one end and a PL259 on the other end. This prevents accidental feeding of high level RF from my K3S into my Collins 51J4 or feeding my 75A4, Viking Valiant combo into my amplified loop receive antenna.

I love patch panels. If anyone is planning a patch panel and does klutzy, brain fart things like I occasionally do, maybe this will help.

Gary
K0CX

>I am undertaking a full rebuild of my operating position, note the Patch
>Panel does not say K3 on it... That means I can replace things with a
>K4 later...
>Dave (NK7Z)
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NK7Z

Re: Latest on the new home for my K3...

That's a really good idea, wish I had thought of that... I also worked
in Broadcast Engineering for a few decades.

73, and thanks,
Dave (NK7Z)
https://www.nk7z.net
ARRL Volunteer Examiner
ARRL Technical Specialist
ARRL Asst. Director, NW Division, Technical Resources

On 4/23/20 8:38 AM, Gary Peterson wrote:

> I have been following this thread with interest.
> Years ago, I designed a patch panel for the ham shack.
> Knowing that I sometimes have a propensity to make stupid mistakes, being a retired broadcast engineer, and being a firm believer in the If anything can go wrong, it will club, I made the patch panel as foolproof as I could.
>
> All receivers and sources of RF terminate in N female, panel mount connectors. All loads, such as antennas or the dummy load terminate in SO239 panel mount connectors. All patch cables have an N male on one end and a PL259 on the other end. This prevents accidental feeding of high level RF from my K3S into my Collins 51J4 or feeding my 75A4, Viking Valiant combo into my amplified loop receive antenna.
>
> I love patch panels. If anyone is planning a patch panel and does klutzy, brain fart things like I occasionally do, maybe this will help.
>
> Gary
> K0CX
>
>
>> I am undertaking a full rebuild of my operating position, note the Patch
>> Panel does not say K3 on it... That means I can replace things with a
>> K4 later...
>> Dave (NK7Z)
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Jim Brown-10

Re: Latest on the new home for my K3...

In reply to this post by Gary Peterson

On 4/23/2020 8:38 AM, Gary Peterson wrote:
> I love patch panels.

Patch panels are fine for signal routing (I also come out of broadcast),
but they cannot be relied upon for bonding because the bonding path is
FAR too long. Remember -- in studios (and even BC transmitters) we're
interconnecting with shielded twisted pair. In our ham stations, we're
using unbalanced signal lines at both AF and RF. My bonding regimen is
designed to address both lightning safety and hum/buzz/RFI issues
associated with unbalanced connections and the Pin One Problem.

73, Jim K9YC

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Charlie T, K3ICH

Re: Latest on the new home for my K3...

In reply to this post by NK7Z

Also, you can buy multi-colored electrical tape at the typical home stores.
I use that to color code antennas by band (s), polarity & directionality.
The colors closest to the connector is/are the band or bands with the wrap
farthest from the connector one of four possibilities:
Beam Vertical, beam horizontal, omni-vertical or omni horizontal.

And yes I often have to look at the chart of what means what, but then I
know exactly what antenna feed I've got in my hand.

73, Charlie k3ICH

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Bob McGraw - K4TAX

Re: Latest on the new home for my K3...

I just label mine coax feeds with my P-Touch. Just read what is on the
label.

160M loop, 160M dipole, 75M dipole, VHF/UHF vertical, 6M yagi..............

73

Bob, K4TAX

On 4/23/2020 2:22 PM, Charlie T wrote:

> Also, you can buy multi-colored electrical tape at the typical home stores.
> I use that to color code antennas by band (s), polarity & directionality.
> The colors closest to the connector is/are the band or bands with the wrap
> farthest from the connector one of four possibilities:
> Beam Vertical, beam horizontal, omni-vertical or omni horizontal.
>
> And yes I often have to look at the chart of what means what, but then I
> know exactly what antenna feed I've got in my hand.
>
> 73, Charlie k3ICH
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
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>

NK7Z

Re: Latest on the new home for my K3...

He is talking about jumpers on a patch panel, not the actual feeds from
the antenna.

73, and thanks,
Dave (NK7Z)
https://www.nk7z.net
ARRL Volunteer Examiner
ARRL Technical Specialist
ARRL Asst. Director, NW Division, Technical Resources

On 4/23/20 12:37 PM, Bob McGraw K4TAX wrote:

> I just label mine coax feeds with my P-Touch. Just read what is on the
> label.
>
> 160M loop, 160M dipole, 75M dipole, VHF/UHF vertical, 6M
> yagi..............
>
> 73
>
> Bob, K4TAX
>
> On 4/23/2020 2:22 PM, Charlie T wrote:
>> Also, you can buy multi-colored electrical tape at the typical home
>> stores.
>> I use that to color code antennas by band (s), polarity & directionality.
>> The colors closest to the connector is/are the band or bands with the
>> wrap
>> farthest from the connector one of four possibilities:
>> Beam Vertical, beam horizontal, omni-vertical or omni horizontal.
>>
>> And yes I often have to look at the chart of what means what, but then I
>> know exactly what antenna feed I've got in my hand.
>>
>> 73, Charlie k3ICH
>>
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>> Message delivered to [hidden email]
>>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
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Elecraft mailing list

Re: Latest on the new home for my K3...

In reply to this post by Bob McGraw - K4TAX

That works great! Brother has wide tapes of various colors that wrap around the cable nicely. You can have text or images. Pretty cool!

73!
Jack, W6FB

> On Apr 23, 2020, at 12:37 PM, Bob McGraw K4TAX <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> I just label mine coax feeds with my P-Touch. Just read what is on the label.
>
> 160M loop, 160M dipole, 75M dipole, VHF/UHF vertical, 6M yagi..............
>
> 73
>
> Bob, K4TAX
>
> On 4/23/2020 2:22 PM, Charlie T wrote:
>> Also, you can buy multi-colored electrical tape at the typical home stores.
>> I use that to color code antennas by band (s), polarity & directionality.
>> The colors closest to the connector is/are the band or bands with the wrap
>> farthest from the connector one of four possibilities:
>> Beam Vertical, beam horizontal, omni-vertical or omni horizontal.
>>
>> And yes I often have to look at the chart of what means what, but then I
>> know exactly what antenna feed I've got in my hand.
>>
>> 73, Charlie k3ICH
>>
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
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>> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>> Message delivered to [hidden email]
>>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
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NK7Z

Re: Latest on the new home for my K3...

In reply to this post by NK7Z

Never mind, you are correct... He was talking about the feeds.

73, and thanks,
Dave (NK7Z)
https://www.nk7z.net
ARRL Volunteer Examiner
ARRL Technical Specialist
ARRL Asst. Director, NW Division, Technical Resources

On 4/23/20 12:43 PM, Dave Cole wrote:

> He is talking about jumpers on a patch panel, not the actual feeds from
> the antenna.
>
> 73, and thanks,
> Dave (NK7Z)
> https://www.nk7z.net
> ARRL Volunteer Examiner
> ARRL Technical Specialist
> ARRL Asst. Director, NW Division, Technical Resources
>
> On 4/23/20 12:37 PM, Bob McGraw K4TAX wrote:
>> I just label mine coax feeds with my P-Touch. Just read what is on
>> the label.
>>
>> 160M loop, 160M dipole, 75M dipole, VHF/UHF vertical, 6M
>> yagi..............
>>
>> 73
>>
>> Bob, K4TAX
>>
>> On 4/23/2020 2:22 PM, Charlie T wrote:
>>> Also, you can buy multi-colored electrical tape at the typical home
>>> stores.
>>> I use that to color code antennas by band (s), polarity &
>>> directionality.
>>> The colors closest to the connector is/are the band or bands with the
>>> wrap
>>> farthest from the connector one of four possibilities:
>>> Beam Vertical, beam horizontal, omni-vertical or omni horizontal.
>>>
>>> And yes I often have to look at the chart of what means what, but then I
>>> know exactly what antenna feed I've got in my hand.
>>>
>>> 73, Charlie k3ICH
>>>
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________________________
>>> Elecraft mailing list
>>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>>> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>>>
>>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>> Message delivered to [hidden email]
>>>
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>> Message delivered to [hidden email]
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Jim Cassidy

Re: Latest on the new home for my K3...

In reply to this post by Bob McGraw - K4TAX

I found several years ago that Brother makes different adhesive level labels. After labeling a lot of cables many of them were falling off after a few hours. The better quality adhesive does not fail.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob McGraw K4TAX" <[hidden email]>
To: "Elecraft" <[hidden email]>
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2020 12:37:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Latest on the new home for my K3...

I just label mine coax feeds with my P-Touch. Just read what is on the
label.

160M loop, 160M dipole, 75M dipole, VHF/UHF vertical, 6M yagi..............

73

Bob, K4TAX

On 4/23/2020 2:22 PM, Charlie T wrote:

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NK7Z

Re: Latest on the new home for my K3...

I put on a cheap Brothers label, and then heat shrink clear 3:1 on it.

73, and thanks,
Dave (NK7Z)
https://www.nk7z.net
ARRL Volunteer Examiner
ARRL Technical Specialist
ARRL Asst. Director, NW Division, Technical Resources

On 4/23/20 4:51 PM, Jim Cassidy wrote:

> I found several years ago that Brother makes different adhesive level labels. After labeling a lot of cables many of them were falling off after a few hours. The better quality adhesive does not fail.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bob McGraw K4TAX" <[hidden email]>
> To: "Elecraft" <[hidden email]>
> Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2020 12:37:06 PM
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Latest on the new home for my K3...
>
> I just label mine coax feeds with my P-Touch. Just read what is on the
> label.
>
> 160M loop, 160M dipole, 75M dipole, VHF/UHF vertical, 6M yagi..............
>
> 73
>
> Bob, K4TAX
>
> On 4/23/2020 2:22 PM, Charlie T wrote:
>> Also, you can buy multi-colored electrical tape at the typical home stores.
>> I use that to color code antennas by band (s), polarity & directionality.
>> The colors closest to the connector is/are the band or bands with the wrap
>> farthest from the connector one of four possibilities:
>> Beam Vertical, beam horizontal, omni-vertical or omni horizontal.
>>
>> And yes I often have to look at the chart of what means what, but then I
>> know exactly what antenna feed I've got in my hand.
>>
>> 73, Charlie k3ICH
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> Elecraft mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>> Message delivered to [hidden email]
>>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
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>
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