Yeah. They told me I needed a premium subscription to post on the main amateur radio news forum. Strange, I thought I had a premium subscription already, but it must have lapsed. Anyway, was happy to renew my premium subscription, but the video was moved to this forum rather than the main forum anyway. Bait and switch I guess. Even with so few views coming from QRZ, happy to post here for those consuming my flavor of content from the Zed. 73 Julian oh8stn .
I agree with you about the questionable reliability involving the Anderson Power Pole connectors. Just to elaborate further on this point, I have decided to make them somewhat more robust for off grid, field use where equipment reliability is important. So I thought I might pass these tips and methods I use along to help others too. One of the problems many people experience is keeping the center pins and wire from slipping out of the connectors. Sometimes they are not crimped properly, or perhaps the pin is not properly inserted and locked inside the connector. Here's a cutaway view of the connector showing how it works... It seems some people may not be installing and locking the pin over the spring inside the connector correctly. In other cases, people may not be crimping them properly. Sometimes people are just buying cheap knockoffs online, and those are just not getting the job done. So regardless of the reason, it seems some people may experience some kind of Anderson power pole connector failure. It's hard to describe this in words, but in any event here's a sure fire way to help stop the wire from ever slipping out of the pins seated inside the connector. #1 Apply a little bit of solder to the pin where you push the wire through the pin. (see photo below) #2 Apply solder to the "spine" of the pin which has already been crimped together. This will prevent the crimp from getting loose, coming apart, and releasing the wire. Easy on the solder! You are basically just tinning the wire and making it stick to the pin. You are also applying a "seal" down that crimped spine so the crimp cannot bend, separate and come apart. #3 Another thing you can do is apply marine grade shrink tubing to the connector. This not only prevents moisture from getting inside the connector, provides strain relief for the cable, but the marine grade shrink tubing also has glue built in that will also prevent the wire from ever slipping out. Thank you for posting these videos. I always enjoy watching them and getting valuable insight and tips to use for constructing and improving my own off grid, outdoor portable station. If you follow and do these additional steps when assembling these connectors, your Anderson Power Pole connectors will be bullet proof. 73 Charles - KC8VWM
