[ICOM] Running mobile with some CW problems

[Kent Hufford]

Battery low. Are you transmitting with the engine running?

Also, I would be surprised that the minivan has 10 or 12 gauge wire from a
cigarette/acc socket.

When my van is running I get full power out. Running on battery after about
5 min., the power drops to about half. 

OR, if it's not battery. It could be RF. Are you using the control head of
the 706 off the base? Do you have the little 5mm screw install on the cable
connector on the base? Have RF chokes on both ends of the control head
cable?

Have the base unit connected directly to a body ground?

Kent
KQ4KK 

-----Original Message-----
From: icom-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:icom-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of John Geiger
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2013 5:37 PM
To: ic706 at yahoogroups.com; ICOM Reflector; IC-706MKIIG at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ICOM] Running mobile with some CW problems

I was running my Icom 706MKII mobile over the past few days and made quite a
few QSOs on the County Hunters Net.  However, 2 interesting things showed
up, that I am looking for solutions for.  I had my 706 plugged into the
cigarette lighter on a 2007 Chrysler Town and Country Minivan. The cables
were 10 or 12 guage so there shouldn't have been much voltage drop. The
antenna was a MFJ mini hamstick (3 feet tall on a 5 inch mag mount) for 20
meters.  I had the rig set to 40 watts due to the current limitations of the
cigarette lighter.

The first thing I noticed was that I was getting RF bites off of the set up
MFJ mini travel paddles I was using.  Also off of the rig case at times.
This is intersting because it didn't happen last month when I was using a
Yaesu FT857 with the same setup.  The only difference was that the paddles
have a 1/8" plug on the end, so they plugged directly into the FT857's key
jack, whereas I had to use a 1/8' to 1/4" adaptor for the key jack on the
Icom 706MKII.  Don't know if the adaptor could cause something like that.

Secondly, a couple of stations told me I had a chirp on my signal, like the
battery was low.  I didn't get this report when the FT857 either, running at
around the same power, nor with an Icom 706 original I used to have. Could
the 706mKII be more sensitive to lower voltages?

I wonder if others have experienced these problems with their 7-6s or have
an idea as to what could be going on with my setup.

73 John AF5CC
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