Batboard

Hi all,
Forgive the stupid question , I'm a newbie of sorts. I recently purchased an MCS2000 Model II VHF. The power cord that came with the radio does not have any sort of in line fuse installed. Is this how these cables typically come? Would you advise installing a fuse? Thanks for any input!

It depends where you will be drawing power from but usually yes, the power cable should have a fuse in at least the positive wire, if you're connecting both leads directly to the battery then both positive and negative wires should be fused to prevent other systems earthing through the radio if the main battery earth fails.

Andrew

Hi Andrew, thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. I haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to go about the install, it's going in my '04 single cab F250. What amp size fuse would I need and how is this calculated? The radio is a 25 watt.

XTS3K wrote: The radio is a 25 watt.

The fuse should be 15 amps MAX. The OEM uses the ATO blade type fuses.

I always ground the radio to the body of the truck near where the radio is mounted.

Thanks Will!

Click below for a pretty good pic of the power cord.

http://www.2wayradioparts.com/images/Pr ... N4191B.jpg

fineshot1 wrote:Click below for a pretty good pic of the power cord.

http://www.2wayradioparts.com/images/Pr ... N4191B.jpg

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That's the power lead I've always had whenever it's been a genuine Motorola lead. For my GM300 and M120 in the base I use a couple of trailer clips which fit the Moto plug and have them spliced with the Pro2039 scanner.

All three run 15a figure 8 cable back to a single 15a figure 8 cable from the splice to the power supply. Given that both transmitting at the same time and the scanner receiving at the same time is around 10-14 odd amps this just fits in nicely and I run a 15a fuse on the single line just before the splice so that all three radios are guaranteed protection and the cable is protected from over-current draw.

In my car I have a single 4-6 (can't remember if it is 4 or 6guage) cable running from the battery to the boot of the car via the drivers kick panel which has a splice out. On top of the battery (so say 2-3 inches from the terminal) is a 60a glass fuse in-case the lead shorts out on the firewall or somewhere. The splice out in the cab goes to my three radios and hard wired phone kit/cradle (ALL individually fused again with a much smaller fuse). In the boot I have a splice to a cigarette lighter socket and can splice off again as much as I want to quite safely.

In the car I also have an accessories tap (only like 7amp wire) and a similar sized wire off a switch on the steering column which feeds off the accessories which both go to the boot as well meaning I'm able to if needed (and will most likely do this soon) put a second car battery in the boot in a plastic box and run a solenoid off the switched accessory tap for the solenoid. This allows me to isolate the power in the boot whilst the car is not running so if I'm using an inverter off the cig socket etc it doesn't flatten my car battery. The accessories feed for the moment only feeds the amp.

Basically ALWAYS fuse the radio using probably a 15a and I like to fuse within reason as close to the radio as possible so that future wiring doesn't accidentally bypass the fuse or create some other issue. Where possible also plan for future use when running your cabling and planning your fuses, a good example is that due to running the extra lines and a heavy duty lead from the battery I'm now able to put the second battery in the boot.

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