One problem with powerpoles is not everyone is using them yet. And so we get people that show up at Field Day
and just have bare wires on their radio power cord. For cases like this, I've got a few adapters from pp45
to small battery clamps that can be used to chomp down on the wires. But that's always worried me with how
the wires tend to remain exposed and at significant risk of touching together as radios and power cords get
shifted around without noticing just how vulnerable the wires are. The wires are also very easy to pull out
of the teeth of the battery clamps, and I've seen them slip out a few times already, shutting radios down.
I was recently introduced to WAGO-221 splices, which are really handy for home electrical work, and I got to
thinking... would those be useful to splice to another wire? Or maybe even to a powerpole? That would keep
the wires protected, while providing a very solid grip on the wires. So I got some 221 inline splices and
attached them to a powerpole, and we'll see how that works out next time I run into "naked wires".
As it turns out, they work very well. One operator brought a battery with wires clamped on it, twisted to
wires going to his radio, with not a fuse in sight and no way to patch him into solar. I converted his radio
and battery to powerpoles with these adapters, put a powerpole fuse on his battery, and connected both with
a powerpole block that then branched off to the solar grid for charging. I should probably make another pair
of them.
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