On Fri, 2008-08-15 at 06:42 -0700, Allan Taylor wrote:
> A question for 253 tuner users. I recently acquired two (2) 253 tuners
> to assist in automating my station. The
> instructions say to use interconnecting cables of RG174 for the QSK
> loop. These cables will need to have RCA phono
> plugs on them. Is there an obvious source of high quality (read that
> well-shielded) cables with phono plugs? Will R/S
> cables do? Would it be necessary to use UHF to RCA phono adapters and
> RG58 equivalent? One of the tuners came with
> two such adapters...
Cheap cables are sort of shielded with a spiral wrap, not braid. RS
cables are the cheapest made of cables, nearly always spiral wrapped.
That can let RF get into the control circuits.
RG58A or RG58C will fit good RCA phono plugs. I prefer those plugs made
by Switchcraft, such as 3502 or 3502A. I think Mouser carries them.
RS RG58 cables have historically been second rate with not as much
copper in the shield as real military quality cables made by Belden.
As mentioned in another post, there's a chance video cables will have
better shields than audio cables.
Collins S-line used a gaggle of RCA to RCA coaxial cables to connect
receiver and transmitter. There have been vendors of replacement cable
sets that should be quality cables.
That being said, these control signals shouldn't have much sensitivity
to RF, and unless the antenna is close to the shack or is an end fed
long wire connected directly to the tuner in the shack, a poorly
shielded cable will probably work without a problem.
RG-174 is a pain to solder, its easy to melt what little insulation
there is on the center conductor.
>
> The setup is with an OmniVI and Hercules II amp. I will be doing the
> same on occasion but with a Titan instead of the
> Herc II.
>
73, Jerry, K0CQ
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