The basic premise and methodology of selecting a desirable connector scheme has many important considerations. Some of these are:

1. Will the connector safely handle the Amperage current to be drawn through it without imposing excess heating, and also unwanted voltage drop through this same mechanism of Ohmic resistance.
   
   
2. Is the connector indexed in such a manner that the plus (+) and minus (-) polarity cannot be inadvertently reversed, thereby damaging the equipment to which it is providing power.
   
   
3. Is the connector commonly available such that it is readily available from typical stores and vendors. This is important as it will become desirable to add additional connectors as more or different radio equipment is acquired. It is also useful to have a common power connector scheme such that friends can use their equipment in your vehicle or base station, and you can use your equipment in their stations. This is particularly useful during "Field Day" or similar outings. For this last reason, its nice to have a power connector that you can get at any decent hardware store. When your out in Timbuck Two on "Field Day" or at a Tech Bench outing, is there going to be a place where you can get one of these connectors for the guys radio that isn't "Waynisized"!

The Waynis

Many years ago when I got my first automobile, I had to make a decision about appropriate wiring for my Ham Radio equipment for mobile applications. In this time period I was in Senior High School as were my friends. We were all Ham Radio operators and generally shared the same interests. We were buying different radio equipment and also different sorts of cars as our incomes would allow. Since some of us had better radios and some had better cars, we wanted to be able to interchange them.

I had a Lafayette HA-460 six meter wavelength band Amplitude Modulated transceiver. All of us were on 6 meter "AM". It was generally agreed that I had the best and most versatile radio in our group. Typically when we would go on trips or mountain topping expeditions we would take the 1967 Volkswagen of my friend Greg, WB6ASR. To accomplish installation of my radio in Greg's car we had to provide some common connectors. Coaxial connectors for the antenna system were already common with SO-239 connectors on the radios, and PL-259 connectors on the antennas coax. Power though posed some interesting dilemmas.

We first tried the commonly available connectors which plug into the cigarette lighter socket in the dashboard of the car. These were no good for this application. Our radios would on average pull about 15 Amps of current load. Even half this amount of current would cause severe heating and voltage drop within these connectors strip metal contacts. Additionally it was not desirable to use the dashboard mounted connector as it was often wired with undersized conductors which could themselves only carry a fraction of the desired current load. Also, these connectors which were installed for an originally different purpose within the vehicle, had many problems when powering radio equipment. They carried voltage spike transients, and alternator noise internal to the cars wiring. To solve this problem it is desirable to wire the radio directly across the vehicles battery using large gauge wire of low resistance. This allows best voltage and current transfer, as well as minimizes transient noise. The battery sort of works like a big capacitor! As long as we were going to install the best desirable power installation, it made good sense to choose the best connector.

A prolific advocate of both VHF radio contesting, as well as mountain top radio operation in general was Wayne Overbeck K6YNB. He used a common Alternating Current type connector in his Chevrolet station wagon, and later in his camper truck. In its original application this connector can handle 20 Amps at 250 VAC. The connector (Hubbel 5666N or General Electric GED0611) looks like a normal 3 pin grounding type 115 VAC connector, except that both the flat pins are horizontal not vertical. At 12 VDC with both these flat pins wired in parallel to the (+) or positive side of the battery the connector can very conservatively handle 30 Amps. In those days while the radio equipment I and my friends had was minimal and the consequential current load was modest, Wayne by contrast used all manner of radios at much higher current loads. This connector served us all well in these applications and it still does to this very day. Myself, Wayne (now N6NB), Greg WB6ASR, George WB6RAL, Bob K6LPF, Will AA6DD (then WB6RIV), George WT6U, Gracie N6FSL, Bob K6PHE, and Merrils N6PON as well as others have now successfully used this connector for many years.

This connector has many virtues and desirable attributes. When using the readily available female duplex style connector (Hubbel 5662 or General Electric GE4067-1) installed as it would be in a house, the connector can be used to not only provide convenient terminus connection points underneath automobile seats but, by this method provide a dual purpose bonding technique for connecting all portions of the vehicles chassis to provide a common low impedance RF ground.

This wiring scheme starts at the automobile battery under the hood, goes to a point beneath the dashboard, goes next to a point underneath the front seat of the vehicle where power amplifiers might be installed, goes next under the rear seat where additional equipment might be placed, and all the way to the vehicle trunk. At each duplex connector a common electrical wiring type junction utility box is screwed down to the floor paneling. Thusly, the utility box connects the minus (-) side wire to chassis ground each time a box is mounted. All wiring should be of at least #6 American Wire Gauge (AWG) or larger fine stranded wire. I use either #4 or #6 welding wire, and make short pig-tail leads of #12 "SO" type motor wire soldered and taped to the larger conductor for each connector installed. Finally for safety sake, fuse the plus (+) side wiring with a large cartridge fuse mounted near the battery. I used to do this at 30 Amps, I have more recently gone up to 50 Amp fuses because of larger power amplifiers. Each radio or electronic device should of course have its own appropriately sized fuse!

You will find this connector to provide a good and easy installation. I use these on the interior of my Ford Van, my Nissan pick-up truck, my motorhome, as well as my radio desk at home. In fact I have an 8 amp as well as a 35 amp power supply that feed 12 of these connectors for my home base station.

To make this installation further versatile and also less expensive, you can make adapters that "pigtail" out one of these 30 Amp male gender connectors to 3 or 4 smaller female connectors for lighter current loads like scanners or handi-talkies. The smaller connector I use is a Radio Shack Catalog No. 274-201. On this smaller connector the wide pin is wired to the positive (+) side of the line, and the negative side is wired to the narrow pin.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to explain where the term "Waynis" came from. Well, you see George WB6RAL used to call Wayne N6NB "Waynis", hence the Waynis connector was born! In fact we use a combination of Big Waynises, and Little Waynises! If you're curious about why George modified N6NB's name, you better ask George (or even Wayne)!