Batboard

I have a couple of Saber I Securenet VHF radios that when connected to a battery and turned on the heat up, almost to the point where it's uncomfortable to touch the case.

I have a couple of other brand radios that do this upon lenghty QSOs but this is when the radio is sitting on the bench doing nothing.

They work fine except that the battery life is very poor.

I suspect some kind of dead short inside the radio, has anyone else encountered this? Where should I look first?

what's getting hot, the battery or the radio?

My guess is the radio. Idle current for a "normal" squelched Saber isn't very much -- I'm guessing less than 75 mA.

If it's getting that warm there's a short somewhere and it's drawing way more power. That would explain the lousy battery life.

99% chance the PA is in oscillation - drawing high current....very common saber failure.

replace the PA.




doug

batdude wrote:99% chance the PA is in oscillation - drawing high current....very common saber failure.

replace the PA. doug

Very good call, Doug. Could be a defective PA drawing current when not transmitting. This can happen on the GP300/350/P110 series of radios also.

There is a SRN on the Saber about adding a capacitor.

Almost guaranteed a bad pa module. Have had several do this.
just pull the module and re-assemble and turn on for a while.
Stays cool then, You need a new one. Phrawg