Batboard

I am planning on putting a radio in my car (91 buick century, lol) finally, and the radio I was planning to put in was a 110w astro spectra vhf.

Doing a little reading, I am finding that the radio pulls something like 25-30 amps on tx . I was going to wire it directly to the battery, but I don't want to kill my car.

Now, I live in northern california (tahoe/truckee) and will be using both analog and IMBE (<-- some, not much), so I figured the more power the better (with digital and mountains and all), but now I am second guessing my whole plan of attack.

Your thoughts?

You do want to run B+ directly to your battery, the ground should go to a good ground close to the radio. A 25 to 30 amp draw should not hurt your car if every this is up to par.


Jim

If the Buick stays parked for several days at a time, then you should consider a battery cutoff switch in the A+ line since there is a small constant drain even when the radio is "off". As for xmit current, with a high power radio, it's always best to run the engine if you plan in extended conversations.

We used to install 110w low band mitrek's and maratrac's in compact cars for the DOT supervisors. They never had issues, just keep the engine running when transmitting a lot. And don't sit in the dark with your high beams on, transmitting on the radio with your hazards/whacker lights on, rolling your power windows up and down constantly just for the hell of it and you shouldn't have battery issues.

ha! zactly.