Hi
The EMC-30 has a connector on the rear to control a 6-way antenna selector. The antenna selector can only be controlled via the GPIB command set, so I need a USB-GPIB adapter (still waiting for the PCBs).
I don't have the Electro-Metrics antenna selector, so I have decided to make one. You may be wondering I would need a 6-way antenna selector. That's easy to answer. If I didn't make an antenna selector, I wouldn't need the GPIB adapters.
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I do have 2x wide band PCB antennas plus the biconic one I am making.
The receiver can control 2x antenna selectors to select one of 12 antenna. I could make a second antenna selector, but what would be the use of that.
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The first task has been to make the connector assembly. I purchased a new Amphenol mating connector from e-bay, and then purchased some Mil-Std type connectors off Aliexpress. The Chinese ones look like the real thing.
Unfortunately the rear panel connector is a small 19pin Mil-Std connector. Usually mil-Std connectors include options to fit a back-shell that allows for a reasonable length of removed sheaf. Not this one. Very difficult to strip the insulation and solder the cores.
I had to make a custom 3D printed wire insulation stripper to be able to keep the wire ends as short as possible. I also printed off a clamp to hold the connector while I was soldering the wires. I soldered the wire cores to the nearest pin, without regard for cable numbers. No room to cross cores.
The Chinese connectors were larger and allowed for a longer length of un-sheaved cores. Much easier to solder. To make sure I got the wiring done right, I beeped out the cores.