Here is my experience when running hand helds in a mobile setup connected to the car power system via a cigarette lighter plug.

While some of them, especially the smaller ones, get warmer than I would prefer with heavier than average use, I have never had a meltdown like the ones described in that article.

My guess is that this person was talking a lot more than he was listening.

Any hand held which is powered by the car system, or by a 13.8 volt power supply at home, will get warmer during transmit because the higher voltage means a higher transmit power.

But, as long as you don't try to recite "War and Peace" in a single transmission, you should have no problem using your hand held as either a base or mobile.

By the way, I do know two people who blew the finals in their Icomm IC8000, which is a 70 watt 2 meter mobile, by running it in full power transmit mode for longer than they should have.

So, this type of meltdown is not limited to hand helds.

It is also part of the reason why most of the menu-driven rigs produced over the past several years or so have a menu setting for transmitter time-out.



Mike Duke, K5XU
American Council of Blind Radio Amateurs