[Elecraft] K3 Current Drain When Off

[briana]

Of course there are car "battery terminal" switches which can handle 
100+ amps.   They are not expensive.  They have insignificant voltage 
drop.   They draw zero current on or off.

It used to be that having a master power switch for a station was 
considered a necessity.
Low voltage stuff these days has somewhat bent that rule.  It still 
seems like a good idea.

73 de Brian/K3KO

On 10/19/2013 7:11 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
> Dave,
>
> The reason this matters is that because Wayne comes from the world of 
> QRP and backpacking, he has always worked very hard to minimize the 
> current drain on a battery that you have lugged up a mountain (or 
> charged from solar panels at home).  That's one benefit of owning an 
> Elecraft radio.
>
> I have my SO2R station powered from batteries that are solar charged, 
> with the addition of an AC charger for contest weekends. All that 
> wiring is behind an operating desk that is attached to the wall. 
> "Pulling the plug" on the radios sounds simple, but it means adding a 
> switch to the DC power line of each radio, in which a design parameter 
> is to minimize the voltage drop with a 20A load.  That means a beefy 
> relay in series with each radio, and a switch to control it. Now that 
> I know it's a 4mA drain, I probably won't bother. with 40 mA per 
> radio, I would. :)  And the relay probably draws 50-100 mA when the 
> radios are on.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
>
>  On 10/19/2013 4:40 AM, Ken Wagner K3IU wrote:
>> G'morning, Dave:
>> My purpose in the posting below was to correct an error I had made 
>> earlier.
>> You are probably not missing anything, but IMHO this subject is far 
>> more germane to the purpose of this reflector than many postings 
>> which result in extraordinarily long lives here.
>> 73, Ken K3IU
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> On 10/19/203 7:22 AM, Dave Wright wrote:
>>> Maybe I'm missing something here, and I'm not trying to be a jerk, 
>>> but we're talking about 40ma. Most electronic devices these days 
>>> don't use a "hard" power down, but rather a "soft" power-off state 
>>> in order to maintain settings/calibration, allow for rapid 
>>> startup/remote control usage, etc. 
>
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