I recently purchased an Icom IC-7000 HF/VHF/UHF Amateur Radio tranceiver. I also bought a LDG Electronics IT-100 Antenna Tuner. I planned to run my IC-7000 in my SUV mobile. I had a limited amount of space under the dashboard. I had enough room for the radio under there, but not enough room for the IT-100 tuner. I decided the best place for the tuner was the center console of the SUV. Only one problem. The supplied LDG interface cable is only 14" long. I needed about 3 and 1/2 feet from the back of the radio to the plug in of the IT-100. The LDG instructions that came with the radio say they only supply the one type of interface cable. The instructions tell you how you can "homebrew" your own longer cable by buying a DIN connector and a Molex connector and get out your soldering iron. Now, personally I'm not that good with a solder iron. I have a hard enough time doing RF connectors, not the very tiny pins of a DIN & Molex connector.
I did a little Googling and found out that the LDG uses a common 6 pin DIN connector used for some computer keyboards. In fact I found out that the "Cables To Go - 29613 - 6ft Ultima PS/2 M/F Keyboard Extension Cable" is a cable used for extended length for keyboards. It has the same DIN connector as the LDG. So....I ordered it from Amazon.com. I hooked it up to the LDG tuner....and it worked perfectly !! So, I connected the LDG Interface cable to the keyboard extension cable. I used some radio shack heat shrink tubing to shield the exposed metal where the male LDG connects with the female end of the extension cable. In addition I used three small tie wraps to tie the male and female connection together.
Love my new radio. Love how the LDG tuner tunes up on everything. Even got it to tune up 12 meters on my 15 meter ham stick. Also, love the fact that I didn't have to do the extra soldering that would have been really, really frustrating for this old ham. All for only $8.50.
Here's the link to the Amazon page for the cable:
http://sk4.us/nvGAWb
