Hello Peggy, the 8 inch cable connects to the battery cradle that powers the earthmate and there's another longer cable that connects to the battery pack and the earthmate connects to the other end, this cable is not 8 inches. Wednesday, July 21, 2004, 7:35:59 PM, you wrote: PK> Mike, I'm trying to picture how one would use a serial cable PK> that's only 8 inches long. I have a Sportrak, and that's the only PK> GPS receiver I've ever seen, so perhaps the Earthmate works PK> differently. I can see that it would be good for storing it in PK> the pouch on the BN case, but how would such a short length of PK> cable allow a user to either wear it on their shoulder or put it PK> on a dashboard. Just wondering. (smile) PK> Peggy -- Best regards, Chris mailto:chrisg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx