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I have an idea to use some Cat5 cable I have (8-wire twisted pairs) to wire my headset and aux input plugs to my MGL V6 radio. This is mostly for simplicity's sake, as an alternative to running 15 individual strands of tefzel wire for all 5 plugs (2 mic, 2 earphone, 1 aux, 3 wires each.) Any comments on whether this is a good/bad idea?

I haven't yet considered the PTT switches, which I think may need to be wired individually from switch to mic plug. But I do like the idea of contained twisted-pair wiring for these low-current audio connections.

Shielding ... twisted pair is good for differential signals, not so great for single ended. The output audio is less of a problem than the mic lines.

AP
#618

... but the proof is in the pudding!

I had those plugs on a microlight I once owned. The com system worked well. Only issue came about was when jumping into someone else's plane I never had a headset I could use.

CAT5 cable is typically solid core (for each conductor). Solid core is not so good for high vibration environments (airplanes). If it was me I would use something stranded.

Possibly something like this: http://www.steinair.com/storedetail.cfm?productid=222 (though connect the shield to ground only on the radio side, not the jack side)

If you are talking about wiring the radio to jacks (as opposed to plugs per your post) I used the wiring harness purchased from MGL.
Kind of pricey at $179, but you can't beat the simplicity.

http://www.mglavionics.com/html/radios.html

Then click on "Purchase" and you'll see the harness listed.

Terry

Ryan:

Did you buy the radio package from Sonex? It comes with a two-place harness full wired and the only integration you need to make is the PTT switch, and location of the headset jacks and MP3 jack. It was very easy to do...although the wiring is short and only allows placement of these jacks in the vicinity of the panel.

I bought a used MGL V6, it came with an incomplete harness. It has the serial plug with all the wires coming out of it, but I will need to splice those lines and run them to my plugs (which I've purchased.)

Good point about solid wire Cat5... another good reason it probably shouldn't be used (other than it's not designed for aviation use.) I'll just wire everything up with tefzel. Thanks for input all.