[ICOM] Running mobile with some CW problems

[John Geiger]

Hi Kent,

Was using it with the van running.  The head was not remote mounted, but was 
attached to the body of the rig. This is not a permanent mount. I don't 
drive that much, and this is the only rig I have.  It was sitting on the 
counsel between the two seats, no grounding on the rig, but never had this 
problem with other rigs in the same setup.

73 John AF5CC
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kent Hufford" <khufford at atlanticbb.net>
To: "'ICOM Reflector'" <icom at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2013 10:08 PM
Subject: Re: [ICOM] Running mobile with some CW problems


> 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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> ----
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