Cable, wire, cord, jumpers, leads, strap, etc.

By Matt Erickson KK5DR

Many of you have seen pictures of ham radio stations in the few ham magazines that remain in publication. I have seen these pictures for many years, and have noticed a not-so obvious thing that is common in them. I don t see any wires! Where are all those wires! Some pictures don t even have mic cables exposed, what do these guys do, operate CW 100% of the time?

I m now going to set the record straight. Real ham radio stations have wires exposed, and lots of them! Power cables, control cables, audio wires, ground wires, coax cables, twin lead, etc, etc.

My shack alone, has over 50 wires running behind the equipment, and yes, you can see them too! I have mic cables connected to the front of my radios, and CW keyers, & computers cables too!

I know hams who neatly tie up all the wires that run behind the equipment at their operating position, a tedious task at best, even more annoying when a piece of gear must be moved. This practice invites RF feedback paths that would not exist if the wires/cables were allowed to "dangle". Wires/cables that are tightly bundled together can couple RF inductively.

Let it all hang "loose", who cares what others think of your "dumpy" set-up. I do it, and I have had zero RF feed-back problems, on any band, at any power level.

Dangle your "wire", free and easy.

73 de Matt KK5DR