Radio / Amp placement in vehicle

[Doctnj]

Im going to start the process of install in my truck.  My first impression was to move the mobile back and forth between the house and car.  But after seeing what an amplifier is capable of and not capable of Ill be doing some testing to decide the best approach.  

Here is my question.

Would it be a bad idea to install radio or amp inside a large center console?  It almost seems a perfect place in my truck.  Its oversized, and has a power outlet.  My worries are overheating.  But everything in a car gets super hot when you have the windows up on a summer day.  I dont see it getting a huge amount of use at least currently.  I would mainly just be using the scan feature for majority of time.  I could always open the console if I start to get into a long convo.

So tell me how bad of an idea this is.

[mbrun]

All electronics will handle extreme heat for some period of time, but heat is the enemy of electronics. How long is a complete unknown for every product. A radio sitting idle or in receive only mode will not generate as much heat as radio will when transmitting. When the radio is put into a closed compartment it will raise the ambient temperature around it constantly causing the radio to get even hotter when operating. Again how long it will last is a completely unknown and a complete guess.

You may find that radio will last as long as you care to own it under your conditions.

Ask yourself if there is a way to force some air through the console with something like a muffin fan when you get to the point you are transmitting on the radio a lot.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

[Doctnj]

6 hours ago, mbrun said:

All electronics will handle extreme heat for some period of time, but heat is the enemy of electronics. How long is a complete unknown for every product. A radio sitting idle or in receive only mode will not generate as much heat as radio will when transmitting. When the radio is put into a closed compartment it will raise the ambient temperature around it constantly causing the radio to get even hotter when operating. Again how long it will last is a completely unknown and a complete guess.

You may find that radio will last as long as you care to own it under your conditions.

Ask yourself if there is a way to force some air through the console with something like a muffin fan when you get to the point you are transmitting on the radio a lot.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

Getting it done all the way will take a little bit.  Im giving the family some hints for fathers day like links to a couple different amplifiers.  Initially Ill use my HT hooked up to antenna and see what coverage I get around town.  Its really crazy, I live on top of a pretty good plateau and are higher up than most repeaters.  There is a mountain just a few miles down the road that really goes up there.  Now when I say mountain remember Im talking ozark.  

[mbrun]

Getting it done all the way will take a little bit.  Im giving the family some hints for fathers day like links to a couple different amplifiers.  Initially Ill use my HT hooked up to antenna and see what coverage I get around town.  Its really crazy, I live on top of a pretty good plateau and are higher up than most repeaters.  There is a mountain just a few miles down the road that really goes up there.  Now when I say mountain remember Im talking ozark.  

You might very well be surprised and learn just how little difference there can be in usable range between using your 5W HT with a mobile antenna, in contrast to the same setup with the added amplifier in between. I still operate the HT with a mobile antenna and have good success working repeaters that have their antenna at good elevation. You may find you’re in good shape already.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

[Doctnj]

10 minutes ago, mbrun said:

You might very well be surprised and learn just how little difference there can be in usable range between using your 5W HT with a mobile antenna, in contrast to the same setup with the added amplifier in between. I still operate the HT with a mobile antenna and have good success working repeaters that have their antenna at good elevation. You may find you’re in good shape already.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

May very well be. I was talking to a guy the other night with my HT in my house across the repeater that is 25 km away. 

[wayoverthere]

i'm not sure what the setup is on the repeater sides, but there's a couple repeaters around 30 miles out from me, up on the hill NE of me at around 5000 ft;  one GMRS, one UHF ham.  15 watts from the mxt115 into a browning double 5/8 wave gets into the GMRS one okay if i'm on the north end of town.  on the other hand, 5 watts from a ham HT gets into the ham one pretty well from most areas of town.   The GMRS one used to receive better, but had to move locations due to last years massive wildfires.

[Extreme]

On 5/27/2021 at 7:28 AM, mbrun said:

All electronics will handle extreme heat for some period of time, but heat is the enemy of electronics. How long is a complete unknown for every product. A radio sitting idle or in receive only mode will not generate as much heat as radio will when transmitting. When the radio is put into a closed compartment it will raise the ambient temperature around it constantly causing the radio to get even hotter when operating. Again how long it will last is a completely unknown and a complete guess.

You may find that radio will last as long as you care to own it under your conditions.

Ask yourself if there is a way to force some air through the console with something like a muffin fan when you get to the point you are transmitting on the radio a lot.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

Didn't want to start a new thread so did the search and found this one. 

My remote mount TK-8180 has been shutting down after steady use on the trail. My timeout is set to 30s but often don't give it a lot of rest between TX bursts when on the trail.  What I get is power off, blank screen, but a constant click-click from the speaker.   It has never done this from idle.  After pulling power from the unit and an hour or so of down time, it fires up and operates normally.  Dawned on me that the placement under the passenger seat of my Cherokee XJ might have been a poor choice, now realizing that's the path of the exhaust and that I have the heater going full blast at times while hunting, and with folks in the back seat.

I looked through the service manual and it states operating temp to 140* F.  What I was looking for is whether there's a High Temp Shutdown or fail-safe on these radios. Did not find that.  Regardless of whether it gets that hot under there and rather than shotgunning replacement components, I thought a good first step would be to move the equipment.  Prolonged radio life would be a big bonus as well.