Batboard

We are located in Central Texas, and are operating 36 Astro Spectras (Dash Mount) for Early Warning Siren activations. These radios are inside aluminum cabinets mounted to each siren pole. These radios have been operating sense April of 2000. The Summer Tempature normally is in the high 90's or 100's, and Winters can go below freezing (only for a couple days). I have not been able to measure the temp inside the cabinets, but we usually have to have gloves on when removeing a radio that fails. To date, we have had but a handfull of radios fail. I feel this is pretty good considering their enviroment. Any one else operate in extream conditions?

We have a Micor and R1225 in a cabinet on top of a mountain in a part of Arizona where daily temps regularly reach 115-120 degrees in the summer. The temp sensor in the cabinet has taken readings of up to 180 degrees in the cabinet. Both of the repeaters have faired quite well, especially the Micor, I think it's been 2 years since we needed to make any adjustments to it. The radios are not a full duty cycle by any stretch of the imagination, although back in the '90s when we had customers buying time on the phone patch there was all kinds of activity. Maintenance was more regular back then but still no critical system failures.

I had an AC fail and we didnt have the moscad temp sensor working.
12 quantros., nuke and other stuff.
The UPS said it was 135 and everything still worked but the microwave became a little flaky

I've had HTs sitting on the dash of the truck in the direct summer sunlight, and had no problems with them, except I needed gloves to hold them.

I've used a 100 watt Syntor X9000 to ragchew on 2m simplex for almost an hour straight, and it got so hot the heatsink would've given at least second degree burns were you dumb enough to hold it, and I've never had any trouble out of it. Does that count? How about the VHF P1225 I have that has wound up stuck in TX for over an hour (due to water in the speaker/mic) on two different occasions? It also got hot enough to cause burns, and I still have it, and it still works great as well.

confirmed?? Uh...at least140. That's where the thermometer dial stopped at the peg, and the CDM 1550LS was inoperative. Gotta love those taxi-grade radios!

One of our guys had a gp-300 attached to his bunker gear during training. When the edges of his helmet visor started to bubble, he backed out. Later found out why he couldn't xmit... The antenna had melted off the radio! New antenna, and it works like new.

I have a VHF Mocom 35 (a 70's vintage front mount for the younger guys) that was keyed for about 6 hours when the mic was stuck in between the seat and truck door. The entire radio case was unbearable to touch, but it was (and is) still working.

mastr wrote:I have a VHF Mocom 35 (a 70's vintage front mount for the younger guys) that was keyed for about 6 hours when the mic was stuck in between the seat and truck door. The entire radio case was unbearable to touch, but it was (and is) still working.

And can you think of anything, short of a bullet, that would stop one of those old things? No, wait, what am I thinking? A mere bullet wouldn't stop a Mocom! It'd never even penetrate the heavy-gauge case on those old things!