I haven’t received my pre-ordered Lab599 Discovery TX-500 yet, but I’m still eagerly awaiting it. One of the reviews that helped me decide on it came from the Ham Radio Crash Course YouTube channel. Josh KI6NAZ got a preview unit on loan and did a couple of videos. I was inspired when I saw he had gotten an H-250 military handset with a GX-12 connector wired for the TX-500. I felt very nostalgic from using those during my time in the Army Signal Corps, so I decided to look into it.

H-250 handset adapted to IC-718

There’s a chap who’s building an entire lineup of accessories for the TX-500, W2ENY. I figure that’s probably where Josh got his. After looking at W2ENY’s shop, I decided I ought to try and source the parts a little cheaper and try building them myself. I don’t mind paying for quality work, but finishing connectors and building cables feels like something I should be able to do. Besides, I already have to build a custom cable for the SignaLink, so I’m already exercising those skills.

The H-250 with the original military U-229/U connector only runs about $25 on eBay. I could have cut off the original connector and replaced it with the GX-12 to fit the TX-500, but I decided instead to pursue making a family of adapter cables. I ordered several U-228/U male connectors, and now I can build adapter cables to connect a stock H-250 to many of my radios. Since I don’t have the TX-500 yet, I decided to build the first adapter cable for my Icom IC-718 with a GX-16 connector. So far in testing, it works great! The handset speaker is clearer than the radio’s front speaker, and speaking into the mic produces movement on the dummy load power meter. I still need to try it in an actual QSO; frankly I don’t have much experience yet with HF voice, but this should inspire me to try it some more.

My next step is to build adapter cables for other radios. I have one planned for the TX-500 of course, but I figure doing one with the K-1 plug would be fun; that would fit my Anytone D878UV, Baofeng UV-5R and others. I have this image now of my army pack with one of those foldable tactical blade antennas that look like the AS-3683A/PRC, that and the H-250 sticking out, and it would look just like when I was out on an FTX with a SINCGARS manpack. Ah, good times.