The TM-D710G project to remote the radio unit, with the annoying fan, to a rack in the basement below my Office/Shack, is complete. The last thing I wanted to do was to enclose the five cables between the basement and the Office/Shack in "split loom" to make for a reasonably clean run between the two.
At the same time, I extended the two audio (Kenwood calls them data) cables, which are stero subminiature phone jacks, with two extension cables. As mentioned in the previous post, I also replaced the stock Kenwood RS-232 cable with one that is 10', which was perfect. That replacement RS-232 cable got all the way from the radio to the Office/Shack cleanly, thus I didn't have to have a big lump in the cable.
This is the bundle of five separate cables being bundled into the split loom at the rear of the radio module:
- Radio module to radio head cable (RJ45 to RJ45)
- Microhphone (RJ45 to RJ45)
- Dual speaker (dual mono submini jacks)
- Radio control RS-232 (Mini-DIN to 9-pin DSUB)
- Data (TX/RX audio, PTT)
Coax to the triband antenna, and the power supply, are separate from the bundle.
This is the split loom bundle running up the wall cavity. On the left is a nylon line with a weight. That turned out to be really useful as to do this I had to pull the bundle back and forth several times to get everything right.
Actually, I'm not entirely done - one more chore to do. As you can see, I'm in proximity of copper water pipes including one that runs horizontally just above the focus of this photo. I've actually banged them a few times with the weight on the end of the pull cord. Thus I've decided to protect the copper pipes with some push on foam insulation. It comes in 6 foot lengths for not much, so that's inexpensive insurance.
Here's the final product of all that work. This shelf is near my main data operating position, so this is comfortable. There are two speakers, one for each radio, and they're comfortably on the same shelf, staying put with more plastic stick-on feet. The microhphone is out of frame, on one of the table legs.
de N8GNJ
Postscript: If you look very carefully, the tuning / multifunction knob (big one on the left) is slightly off-center. Turns out it was damaged during a tumble off the table, and the "pushbutton" function doesn't work. Without that one button, I can't change modes on the radio... Argh! So after this photo was taken, the head unit was bundled up and packed (very carefully - lots of bubble wrap and a very sturdy box) off to Kenwood's repair contractor in California.
I'm looking forward to getting it back and actually switching it out of APRS mode into packet and then into KISS mode for (gasp!) TCP/IP with my co-conspirators WA7NWP and KU7M.