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