Custom cables/connectors?

[CoastalDude]

Ya, I'm a total newbie, just got my Technician's license yesterday, got 100% on the test, my call sign is KQ4MUQ (try saying that with the phonetic alphabet, just aweful). I applied for a Vanity sign last night, just a dreadful call sign, but still love that I am licensed !!! Also, regarding the Phonetic alphabet, Uniform should have been Utah, really mesed up there if you ask me, but you didn't so here's my question.

I have an "Astatic PDC1" Swr Meter from my CB days and it looks like this will work just fine for the 2m/70cm bands. I've got hand helds only at this point, a BaoFeng BF-HPF8, a Yaesu FT-60, and I just bought that crazy QuanSheng UV-K6. I haven't recieved the QuanSheng yet. I'll move onto base stations next. I was talking on my BaeFeng last night to a guy and he said he was in Sarasota, FL and I'm in Navarre, FL, that's 500 miles away. I was impressed with my little BaoFeng but it turns out the repeater I was on was part of our (Florida's) state wide repeater network, SARNET and it's pretty incredible, 100% analog, zero IP, digital, or internet used at all. You can talk around the entire state, it's not really for long term rag chewing though.

So finally here is my question. Is there a place where you can buy custom cables such as "I need a BNC to Coax cable 2ft long" and so forth? I'm not the kind to go make my own cables though I see plenty of video's on how to do it, I am just beginning to pour all my precious money down the pit of ham radio and don't really know where to get started. I plan on building my own antenna but cableing and connectors are going to be the worst for me.

Open to all and any advice ...

- Mike

 

[AB5ID]

The Cable Creator™ by Pasternack

Find the assembly you need or design your own from any combination of in stock compatible connectors and cables.

www.pasternack.com

 

[chief21]

Lots of places to buy custom cables online... Cable X-perts, ABR industries, mpddigital, HRO, Gigaparts, DX Engineering and probably others that you can Google.

 

[CoastalDude]

The Cable Creator™ by Pasternack

Find the assembly you need or design your own from any combination of in stock compatible connectors and cables.

www.pasternack.com

Wow, that is insane, who knew !! Even LMR-400, thank you !!!

 

[CoastalDude]

Lots of places to buy custom cables online... Cable X-perts, ABR industries, mpddigital, HRO, Gigaparts, DX Engineering and probably others that you can Google.

I've been on DX Engineering, will take another look

 

[bharvey2]

CoastalDude, congratulations on passing your tech license. Several of the earlier responses to you post suggested excent choices for custom cables. However, it probably won't be long until you've acquired the tools to make your own. Making and modifying cables seems to be a routine part of the ham/experimenting hobby.

On a bit of an unrelated note, I did a bit of research on you SWR meter. From what I could find, that meter is designed to work on the 10-12 meter bands, not the 2M/70cm bands. Granted, it was a quick Google search to confirm but you may want to double check.

 

[mmckenna]

Open to all and any advice ...

If you only need a few cables, buying them from someone else may be a good solution.

But, since you are obviously a radio hobbyist and now a ham, you'll probably need more than a few...
Paying someone else to make them for you gets expensive after a while. It's not hard to do yourself, you just need to invest in the correct tools and then practice a bit. In the long run, it'll save you a lot of money to have the correct tools to do it yourself.

Years ago I bought a kit similar to this one: https://a.co/d/1Xi6ieW

I have the fancy name brand stuff at work, but I needed something for making cables at home. This does the job just fine and will be perfect for a ham/hobbyists. I didn't pay that much for it, there's other version on line that are cheaper. The strippers are a bit useless, but an X-acto knife and a ruler will do a much better job.

Here are some less expensive kits that will do what you need (probably way more than you will ever need…):

https://a.co/d/jap5AM4

Amazon.com

Grab some scrap coax and a few extra connectors and practice. It's not hard to do if you follow the directions.

 

[CoastalDude]

CoastalDude, congratulations on passing your tech license. Several of the earlier responses to you post suggested excent choices for custom cables. However, it probably won't be long until you've acquired the tools to make your own. Making and modifying cables seems to be a routine part of the ham/experimenting hobby.

On a bit of an unrelated note, I did a bit of research on you SWR meter. From what I could find, that meter is designed to work on the 10-12 meter bands, not the 2M/70cm bands. Granted, it was a quick Google search to confirm but you may want to double check.

You probably right, I used it to tune antenna's in our Jeep club, looks like more $$, I'm going broke already and have barely begun !

 

[bharvey2]

You probably right, I used it to tune antenna's in our Jeep club, looks like more $$, I'm going broke already and have barely begun !

Yeah, that's the "problem" with ham radio as a hobby. It offers a whole bunch of opportunity to buy more toys.