[amsat-bb] Radio Shack bargain bin find

[Andrew Glasbrenner]

I have a few different projects that I tackled today that involved 2.5mm 
stereo connectors. After finding my junk box didn't have any, I headed down 
to Radio Shack rather reluctantly...but it's the only game in town on a 
Sunday afternoon. Of course the one I went to wasn't a "parts" store, and 
only had mono plugs. So I decided to cruise the yellow clearance tags and lo 
and behold, SKU # 43-2003 was on clearance for $1.97. This is half the cost 
of one of the plugs from the same store. This item consists of a nice 6 ft 
coiled cable, with a right angle gold-plated 2.5mm stereo plug on one end, 
and a jack of the same size on the other end. BINGO! I bought four of the 
seven they had, and a few other pieces I knew the junk box was also missing.

Once home, three were hacked up and made into the following cables:

1) Male 2.5mm to DB-9 for connection to the AMSAT' D7 loaner rig for 
programming

2) Female 2.5mm to DB-9 for connection to my Garmin GPS and D7 mobile 
harness in lieu of the D7. This allows me to feed NMEA GPS data into my 
laptop and logging software for next weekend's VHF contest while roving.

3) Male 2.5mm to female 3.5mm for connection from the D7 to normal stereo 
headphones. These headphones are plentiful, and by cross wiring the female 
end of the cable you get sound in both ears without adapters.

I just wanted to share because I know there are many satellite users that 
have the D7 also.

73, Drew KO4MA