First off thanks to the many MANY people who responded to my urgent pleas
for a source for Cinch Jones connectors...
MANY suggestions were offered - the most popular being Digikey (probably 20
'hits')...unfortunately they and Atexelectronics and Allied and Unicorn and
Universal and MCM did NOT have what I needed...they all had 800 numbers so I
called them all and unfortunately was unable to make it work....but fear
not:
N6KI gave me the winning ticket...a supplier in San Diego called:
Shanks & Wright
...since they did NOT have a toll free line I avoided calling them but when
the others did not pan out I gambled on the toll call and not only was
pleased to hear from a knowledgeable Tim in sales that they had exactly what
I wanted (no substituting or compromising) BUT they took it a step
further...I had ordered deep chassis mount male connectors (tnx tip
Pete/N4ZR - the "hot" pins now are on the female side with this setup so no
accidental grounded of a hot 12VDC) and along with them ordered female
mating connectors with a 90 degree exit for the cable...the order puller
(forgot his name) at Shanks & Wright CALLED ME to tell me that the 90 degree
strain relief would NOT allow the female to fully engage the chassis
connector, so I went with normal 180 degree cable exit - I GOT SOME HONEST
TO GOODNESS REAL CUSTOMER SERVICE - talk about refreshing!
I told my trials and tribulations to my folks (EX: San Diego-ans - Mom was
ARRL SCM for San Diego once upon a time) and they asked where I had finally
sourced the connectors at which point they (speaker phone) burst out "THEIR
STILL IN BUSINESS - WE USED TO BUY FROM DICK SHANKS 50 YEARS AGO!"
They have a web page (includes some great old black and white shots of an
olde radio biz) at:
http://www.shankswright.com
The connectors were shipped Blue Label and showed up today, I hope to favor
them with more business as the station grows - it has been a long time since
I had some REAL customer service, thanks:
Shanks Wright
7370 Opportunity Road - Suite O
San Diego, CA 92111 (In Kearny Mesa)
Ph: 858.715.0176 Fax: 858.715.5147
73 - and thanks again to my contesting friends!
Jim, K4OJ
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