Darren,

You'll have to evaluate your operating style to determine whether or not you 
need to be concerned.  If you tend to make "old buzzard" transmissions, 
you'll either have to become less long-winded or get a mobile.  Another 
alternative is to run your HT at low power into an amplifier.

Steve

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "KK4AHX Darren Duff" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2011 21:03
Subject: Ht burning out?


> Hi.
> After reading the below paragraph in an online article I am worried about
> burning out my ht. It's the only rig I have now. I want to get a mobile to
> use as a base station but it's not in the budget right now. I would like 
> to
> know what other's think. here is the snip from the article.
>
> HAND HELD DUTY CYCLE LIMITS
>
> If you subject today's HTs to frequent full power, 5w transmissions of
> several minutes duration they overheat and the final power transistors may
> fail prematurely. Kenwood and Yaesu state in their service manuals that
> their HTs are rated for 20% duty cycle at their maximum RF output, or 30
> seconds of transmit to 2 minutes of standby. After I first got my license,
> I burned up three sets of "finals" in less than a year with long winded
> QSOs using a Radio Shack HTX-202 which produced 8w when powered at 13.8V
> from my auto cigarette lighter plug! When the warranty ran out, I replaced
> it with a Kenwood TH-22 and repeated the same result. Kenwood's Virginia
> Beach service center politely admonished me that I was "exceeding the
> recommended duty cycle" and should buy a mobile. I followed their advice
> and am satisfied with my two Kenwood mobiles, but I sought out other HTs
> and pass that advice along.
>
> Thanks, 73's.
>
> Darren Duff.
>
> amateur radio station KK4AHX.
>
>
>