Don't underestimate the voltage drop in your battery cables. My old ICOM 735 shipped with a ten-foot #12 battery cable, which I used on Field Day without thinking. Later I realized that I was losing more than half a volt in the cable. That's a lot when you're running from batteries with a rig that ceases to function a little below 12 V. A lot of "12 V" rigs are spec'ed at 13.8 V +/- 15% (some are even +/- 10%, which hardly qualifies as "12 V"). You don't have a lot of volts to lose running them on battery.
Now I use two paralleled #10 cords, four feet long, with just a short length of #12 to the radio. Yeah, it's overkill but it makes me feel better. So: 1. Kudos to Elecraft for designing a rig that runs down to 11 V! 2. Look up a copper wire table and do the math on your power cables. You might be surprised. Don't forget that you have two wires in series with the battery. 73 and thanks for listening, Carl WS7L K3 #486 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
