Power Question

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sepharious

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Hi all,

New to Ham radio. I'm trying to figure out how to distribute power from my power supply. What do I need to be able to do that? I have a 20A Pyramid. I moved up from a 12A Pyramid, the one that had the car lighter port on it.

I'd like to find a better one though, that keeps the car lighter, I find that its really handy for other items when I'm out in the field.

The main question stands, however. I'm looking for some advice on how to distribute power to several radios/other things aside from the two poles.

Thanks for the help!
 

jim202

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Mar 7, 2002
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New Orleans region
One suggestion would be to use some barrier terminal strips. Get the jumpers to go between the screw terminals. I generally take either 2 or 3 sets of the screw positions and use jumpers to tie them together. This way you either have 2 or 3 positions on each side. Use one for the + and the other side for the -.

If you rotate the spade lugs with one up and one down, you can get 2 of them under each screw.

Feed the 2 center screws with heavy wire and you can end up with a bunch of power feeds. Each position of the barrier strips has 2 screws per dividing position.

If the strips are too long, you can take a hacksaw and cut them to the length you need. Just make sure you add one position to be used as the end that you put the wood screws in to tie them down with. Then drill out the threads for a #8 screw of say 3/4 inch long and you can screw it onto your bench.

Most electronic supply places carry the barrier strips. they do come in different sizes. I like to use those with #8 screws.
 

n5ims

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Jul 25, 2004
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The odds on standard is the Anderson Powerpole system (http://www.andersonpower.com/us/en/products/powerpole/index.aspx). These are often referred as "Rigrunner" devices as marketed by Power Werx (Anderson Powerpole Connectors, Crimp Tools, Power Supplies & Wouxun Radios | Powerwerx). They make distribution panels (Powerpole Power Distribution: DC power distribution is easy with our Powerpole power splitters in 4-way or 8-way configurations. West Mountain Radio RIGrunners enable fused DC power distribution.) that distribute the input (from the power supply for example) and provide multiple connections (with or without individual fuses) for your various devices. The advantages of these over most terminal strips is that the power connections are covered so the chances of shorting the connections is greatly reduced. When individually fused (with the correct sized fuse), if one device shorts out, the rest may still function since only the fuse for that device will blow.

If you want a do-it-yourself solution, you can daisy-chain the connectors with as many connections as you want. The connections plug into themselves so this option makes it quite easy to roll your own. Polarity is pretty easy to get right by using red connectors (and wire) for the positive connection and black connectors (and wire) for the negative connection. While they sell specialized crimp tools (to make it easy for the various sized connectors), you can use standard ones as well.

While the above links are from the main company (Power Werx), the same system is available from others (MFJ is one example - MFJ Enterprises Inc.).
 
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N4GIX

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Hot Springs, AR
Here is my inexpensive solution for distributing power for my shack. Anderson Powerpoles cabled to a barrier strip. Since everything being plugged in is already fused on both + and - wires, I saw no point in a more expensive solution. I'm using a Yaesu 25 amp continuous power supply I've had for nearly 18 years now... :D
nMlhF.jpg
 
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