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If you are new to radio, hopefully this will be helpful information for getting the most out of your radio. Normally, when I install a radio in one of my vehicles, I cut off all the connectors and run my own lines from the battery to the radio. Occasionally, my GMRS radio gets moves between 2 vehicles, so I left the factory T connector on it. Turns out, that was a big mistake for performance. I had a few people tell me that my signal would be very good for a second and then rapidly drop to a weak signal. I ran a field strength test and the voltage would peak at 77.5 V/m on initial key, and almost instantly drop to 65.7 V/m. That is a huge drop. Knowing what to look for, I measured the power from the battery on the cold side of the T connector and it was 14.0v while on stand-by. However, when I key up, the voltage dropped to 12.4v. A couple of times, it dropped to 12.1v. On the hot side of the connector, there was only 0.25v drop on key-up. I cut the T connector off and soldered in some Power Pole connectors, which have more surface area and much higher spring tension. Now, I only have 0.25v drop on the input of the radio and my field strength is holding steady at 77.5 V/m while transmitting. To give you an idea of how much drop that is in usable power, it is the equivalent of changing your antenna feed from about 37 watts to 50 watts (assuming an antenna with no gain and 100% antenna efficiency). So, if you want to get the most out of your radio, ditch your glass fuses (weak squeeze connector) for a blade fuse and replace your factory T connector with either a fully soldered connection or a high quality Power Pole style connector. Note: I could resolve the 0.25v drop if I run a larger diameter power and ground cables... but it's not worth the effort for my application. Hope this helps.

I don't blame you for that. If it's cool enough tomorrow, I hope to install my shiny-new FT-857D and ATAS 120 in my little Toyota Camry, so while at it I'll straighten up the other three radio's wiring!

I long ago abandoned the stock power connectors from all my radio gear, and replaced them with 45amp Anderson Power Pole connectors.

Some good info. I was going to run a 4 gauge wire to 12 gauge inside of my truck to power a Ftm 400. Running through a relay to a blade fuse to have key on power. But switched to a straight 12 gauge wire run and just going to run the apo. Using the inline glass fuse. Guess I will be hunting for a 12 gauge inline ato fuse setup noq. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

True THAT! The last true natural disaster I worked as a volunteer communicator was the May 6th, 2015 tornado that went through Roseland Nebraska. I was taking an alternate route on my way home to avoid the storm, talking to friends on the 2 Meter repeater in Hastings when I got a call (on the 2 Meter repeater) from the Adams County EOC, asking if I was in the area of Roseland. I was about 10 miles east of there, and could see the problem. They had ZERO information on the situation, and were unable to contact anyone in the area. At their request, I turned west, and proceeded toward Roseland. When I got there, the damage was done. The storm was already passed. No longer able to reach the Hastings repeater, I checked into the Heartwell NE repeater, which is RF linked into the Campbell NE UHF hub, which is RF linked into the Hastings Repeater. I was the first to call in to Adams County EOC to have them send first responders. I found no injured persons. I found property damage to the extreme. On my reports, they called in trucks, tractors, saws, manpower, the natural gas and electric power companies.... No one really needed ambulances, so only one or two had to be sent out just in case. That saved hours of time for emergency responders. Why did ham radio help here? ...because the tornado ripped out the main fiber optic box on the south end of town, thus there was NO internet. NO telephone. NO cable television, NO emergency communications to the dispatch office. NO police radios. NO fire department radios. NO service to the local cellular phone tower. The place was an island of zero communications due to one point of failure. But that has nothing to do with GMRS. I was asked to help if I could, and I did. It DOES go to show that any installed communications structure that relies on land based internet, or even cellular data, is prone to failure at the time it will be most needed.