Hi Guys

Only just joined here im over in the UK and a Born Again Cb'er and hold a UK Amateur Radio Licence too

Ive recently after being QRT for many years picked up a CB and im planning on getting some mobile Ham Gear too

Ive set up the CB in My 2011 Cooper D Hatch after many considerations i went for a Comet hatch Mount and a classic DV27 antenna

When i wanted to power up the radio i soldered a 12V Cigar style plug to the power leads in order to use the 12v accessory socket in the center console but unfortunately now realise it only powers up when the Engine is running

I like to go up into the Hills and while away the hours Dxing and obviously dont want to waste fuel having the engine running for hours

Are there any other Cber's/Hams on here and how do you power your radios from a Constant 12v Source?

Strait from the battery or are there spare outlets in the fusebox for such purposes that are "Unswitched Permanant Live 12v"?

Either way i assume i need to get a hookup through the bulkhead can this be done without drilling any holes? is there a passage through?

Any help or advice would be very gratefully received

Thank You

Jodie

 

99.9% of the time straight from the battery is the best solution, so you don't end up with RFI from other systems within the car. You mentioned DX so I'm assuming you'll be running an HF rig that'll be more sensitive to RFI.

I have been contemplating moving the 2m/70cm rig to switched power and just leaving it perpetually "on" so that it comes on with the car and then if someone spots my call on my plate they can say .... .. and actually get me.

 

Hi Drew

At the moment just CB and i cant decide wether or not to get a duel band 2/70 or an all singing all dancing multiband HF/VHF/UHF ic 706 ft857 or similar?

Either way i want a constant 12v source im just wondering if anybody knows if there are any spare terminals in the fusebox or if battery direct i need to get through from the interior anyway into the engine bay without drilling any holes

Help

 

Be aware that the MINI doesn't have a big battery, so whiling away the hours may be problematic...

Yes you can run a wire straight from the battery. If you remove the battery you will see a pass through in the bulkhead. There even is an extra nipple. I just installed the Integral Audio sub and thier excellent installation instructions show you where.

See http://www.integralaudio.com/install...C1101S-R56.pdf step 9 and 16.

 

As stated here the battery in a 2nd Gen car is very small and if you are going to be DXing for more than about 20-30 minutes you WILL have problems with the car starting. Heck a lot of people have problems when the OEM radio stays on for the 15-30 minutes after the car is shut off.

I would hate to see you get to some place nice and DX with someone for a while and then not be able to get home.

I would suggest an extra battery pack to run the gear off of.

 

Thanks Guys
when i say DX it probably conjures up the picture of me running high powered radios and linear amplifiers for hours on end thats not the case more like 10 minutes here and there and 4 watts

Ive also had another idea given to me not sure if itll work though yet?

I will let you all know later

at least i now know how to get through from the cabin into the engine bay now

Thanks again

Jodie

 

Sorted

found out i can use the accessory socket afterall you just press the start button without depressing the brake,engine doesnt start but does give power to the socket

Regarding the battery going flat as Mini batteries arnt the best what amps are your batteries?

Fudge being a diesel the battery is a nice large one

I did a battery search for my car recomendations were upto 650amps cold cranking upon checking mine i found its a whopping 750amps cca

Thanks you BMW

Im guessing as long as i only opperate for 15 minutes they crank the engine rest and so on it will be ok?

apparently with the radio readyness as its called with the socket live it will switch itself off after a while anyway if it detact something drawring too much

 

I'd like to see first-hand information from this "lot of people" because this doesn't make much sense. The Mini battery may be small, but the OEM stereo doesn't draw much much more than an amp or two at reasonable volumes, so do the math and you're looking at 25+ hours. That's probably optimistic since the car won't start if the battery gets flat, but even conservatively, a full-charged battery in a Mini should easily run the OEM radio for tens of hours before the car wouldn't start.

A ham radio will probably draw more power than a car radio. You need to do the math on the typical current draw; best to actually measure it. I think you can safely assume that the stock, good-condition, fully-charged battery should be able to supply 30AH or so before you need to be at all concerned about starting. If your total rig consumption is 40W, that's about 3 amps at 12V, so you should be able to go for 10 hours or so before worrying about starting the car. (This assumes no other electrical consumption obviously.)

If using the cig lighter plug isn't acceptable from a switching standpoint (does it work in the "Acc" position?), I'd first see if you could get acceptable power from the fuse box rather than trying to get power through the firewall. I use the "add a fuse" accessories to get power out of the fuse box and they work well. If the car is off, you don't need to be concerned about electrical noise, filtering, etc. This is one of those things to try and see what works.

A battery's CCA rating has absolutely nothing to do with this discussion. This is the battery's "Cold Cranking Amps" rating - a measure of how much peak current it can supply the starter motor. For operating a low-power device for a long time, what you care about is the total battery capacity expressed in amp-hours or AH.

I'm not a believer that any particular brand of battery is that much better than any other. What is important is that the battery be in good condition. If you're going to stress a battery by drawing it down for long periods, I'd make sure the battery is fresh.

Are you a licensed ham? This is pretty elementary electrical stuff that should be trivial for someone who has passed even the most basic of ham tests.

- Mark

 

Hi Mark
yes i am a licenced Ham though havnt used the radio much for a few years and yes your right i read the wrong number regarding the CCA but as you say it should be no problem running my little 40 channel Cb which will not draw more than a couple of amps

As for Ham gear i dont have any at present as i sold it when i lost interest a few years ago but when i do buy some more radios i plan on doing some qrp work rarely more than 10 watts so the current drawn wont ammount to much anyway

I will have to check the AH but for what i want i think it will be fine

Thanks

Jodie