Radio Cable for the Mini-HotSpot, Node Adapter, NQSMHS and
HSA
Although most of the "Node Adapter" series of boards are equipped with
an easy-to-use D-Sub connector for interfacing to your radio, many (almost
all) of the modern radios in use today come with a small connector
labelled the "Data", "Packet" or "TNC" port.
![[Radio Cable]](images/CAB0000001.JPG)
That is both good news and bad news. The good news is, that the pinout
on this connector is pretty much a standard, and so you can use the same
cable for your modem with all transceivers that use this connector.
Now, for the bad news... it's a rather small connector, which most of us
also recognize as the connector used by the keyboards and mice for PC's,
known as "the PS/2 connector."
This connector is small, and really designed to be crimped onto the
cable in a factory.. its small size is less suited for manual soldering
of wires. Also, single connectors for soldering are not very cheap to
get.
By popular demand, we now offer a pre-made Radio Cable for the
boards. The cable has been tested with radios from Kenwood, Icom, Yeasu,
Alinco and some less wellknown ones, and in all cases, it worked just
fine. The PS/2 (radio) side of the cable is crimped on, and the D-Sub9
connector was soldered on. The connector cap is metallized for
additional shielding.
Note: length of the cable is about 1.20m (4ft), so if you need a
longer cable, you may have to make one yourself after all !
**DON'T FORGET.... THE RFI !
As many have found out already, most electronics devices do not deal
well with direct RF (radiation from your radio antenna) ... especially
electronics that contains oscillators using crystals. Our kits are
no exception to that rule, so:
- always put the board into a metal enclosure to keep out
unwanted RF
- usually, these boards are quite close to our transmitters and/or
antennas, and in those cases it may be needed to use ferrite clamps
on the cables
Many people still forget, and, often, end up with boards that randomly
fail, reboot, loose settings and so on.
![[Ferrite Cable Clamps]](images/RFI0000002_sm.JPG)
Using a metal enclosure often fixes most of these, but if you want to
make sure, use ferrite clamps on the USB (board end as well as PC end)
and/or radio cable (board side) to block out even more unwanted RF.
We offer two sizes of these clamps in our shop: the smaller ones are
intended for use with thinner cables such as USB cables. The
larger ones can be used for radio cables, and many other cables.
It is advised to use one large clamp on the radio cable (on the near
end, so, the end close to the board) and also two clamps on the USB
cable, one on each end.