Car installed radios for those who live in the cold northern states...

[SvenMarbles]

It's not a topic I see mentioned a lot, but I've gone through a couple of inexpensive mobile radios, I believe, due to the fact that they've lived outside in my truck under very severe cold weather conditions. The LCD display freezes and eventually the contrast of the characters dim to the point that they're not legible anymore.  Also, the style of tuning knobs that use that sort of "clicky" method while spinning, will get to the point that the rotation clicks wont register or even run backwards while spinning forward.

There's also the matter of the radio cooking in the interior of the car in the summer..

Every radio I've ever owned seems to have resulted in an abbreviated life span due to these type of issues.

Do you guys take any sort of measures to mitigate these problems?

I've had a DB20G in the truck since Christmas, and we've had a pretty severe arctic stretch during that period. This one seems to be holding up far better than my past mobile radios. The display just lights right up, and aside from the on/off volume knob feeling very stiff when first getting in the truck, it works perfectly cold. It also utilizes button presses to move up and down in channels, so that's one less failure prone component to worry about.... Maybe I've just had bad luck in the past and this one will serve me better..

 

[SteveShannon]

53 minutes ago, SvenMarbles said:

It's not a topic I see mentioned a lot, but I've gone through a couple of inexpensive mobile radios, I believe, due to the fact that they've lived outside in my truck under very severe cold weather conditions. The LCD display freezes and eventually the contrast of the characters dim to the point that they're not legible anymore.  Also, the style of tuning knobs that use that sort of "clicky" method while spinning, will get to the point that the rotation clicks wont register or even run backwards while spinning forward.

There's also the matter of the radio cooking in the interior of the car in the summer..

Every radio I've ever owned seems to have resulted in an abbreviated life span due to these type of issues.

Do you guys take any sort of measures to mitigate these problems?

I've had a DB20G in the truck since Christmas, and we've had a pretty severe arctic stretch during that period. This one seems to be holding up far better than my past mobile radios. The display just lights right up, and aside from the on/off volume knob feeling very stiff when first getting in the truck, it works perfectly cold. It also utilizes button presses to move up and down in channels, so that's one less failure prone component to worry about.... Maybe I've just had bad luck in the past and this one will serve me better..

 

I take no measures to prevent this and honestly I haven’t seen it occur (I don’t mean I’ve never seen lcds fade to unusable, just not in my two way radios).  Nor have my encoder controls failed.  But other than a couple Baofeng radios I seldom use my radios are mostly Yaesu, Alinco, or Garmin. Perhaps their controls are sealed better against dust and perhaps they use a higher quality wider temperature range LCD.

My DB20Gs have been outside for a couple years during some pretty cold weather. It’s -10 here right now, but they’ve been down to -40°F without apparent issues. None of my vehicles live in the garage. 
 

Edited to add: I don’t turn on devices with frozen (black) LCDs until they’ve had a chance to warm up and thaw.

[73blazer]

My Wouxun KG1000 has had no issues for the past couple years. Well, when it's cold the fan on the Wouxun tends to make noise for a couple seconds.  I also know a guy with a DB20G in his car and he's never had an issue.  Both in Michigan where it gets, yes, cold.

[tcp2525]

Here in Maryland, we're pretty much tropical with winter temps dropping into single digits. So, that might not help you, but high heat is the biggest killer here. I never had any issues with radios crapping out in over 35 years with heat or cold. Even the extremely fragile Yaesu FTM-400 has survived many years of heating/cooling cycles. You really don't have anything to worry about unless you're getting high humidity, which will cause issues.

Here's where I have my 400 mounted. I can tell you it gets very hot since there's no insulation behind it. Same with winter freezing.

[tcp2525]

2 hours ago, SvenMarbles said:

I've had a DB20G in the truck since Christmas, and we've had a pretty severe arctic stretch during that period. This one seems to be holding up far better than my past mobile radios.

I don't have top tell you that the DB20 will survive anything you can throw at it and will still work.

[RIPPER238]

My Midland has been fine for the passed 4 years or so, from -5 up to 140+. Just don't buy junk and its fine. 

[WSEZ864]

I have had a Yaesu  FT-8900 in three trucks over a period of 9 years and it has seen everything from sitting in a field all day in central VA summers (100f+) to western MD winters (<0f) and everything works as it should. We just had single digit nighttime temps for about a week. Display is still crisp, controls are OK.

[WRTC928]

Question for the brain trust: Does it make any difference if you let the vehicle warm up in winter or cool down in summer before you turn on the radio?

[GrouserPad]

My Wouxon kg1000plus is pretty fussy in temps below 20F. If I don't let the radio warm up, when i key it the fan comes on and makes a terrible whirring/whinning noise. Its really loud. I can hear it over road noise. But after about 10 minutes from the heat of the truck the fan noise goes away and all is well. This is my only experience with cold temps affecting my radios. I have CB's in equipment that are in horrid conditions last for decades without hitch.

[SvenMarbles]

1 hour ago, tcp2525 said:

Here in Maryland, we're pretty much tropical with winter temps dropping into single digits. So, that might not help you, but high heat is the biggest killer here. I never had any issues with radios crapping out in over 35 years with heat or cold. Even the extremely fragile Yaesu FTM-400 has survived many years of heating/cooling cycles. You really don't have anything to worry about unless you're getting high humidity, which will cause issues.

Here's where I have my 400 mounted. I can tell you it gets very hot since there's no insulation behind it. Same with winter freezing.

I love that install! I had a little flip down compartment like that on a previous vehicle that I never knew what to do with. Does that fold in and go away cleanly as well?

[SvenMarbles]

The radios I used before perhaps were just not of a very good quality. Both were QYT KT8900 radios. It just seemed like the elements ate them up.

[OffRoaderX]

20 minutes ago, WRTC928 said:

Does it make any difference if you let the vehicle warm up in winter or cool down in summer before you turn on the radio?

I live in Southern California so I cannot speak to the cold, but I often go off-roading in the low desert/leave my jeep parked in direct summer sun where the outside temps reach 120°F and the inside temps much higher.  With all the mobile radios i've had installed (Btech, Wouxun, Motorola), i have never even given it a thought.. I get in, start the Jeep, and turn on the radio.

That is how you should use your radio.. USE it, don't worry/overthink it. Just use it. 

[SteveShannon]

Just now, SvenMarbles said:

The radios I used before perhaps were just not of a very good quality. Both were QYT KT8900 radios. It just seemed like the elements ate them up.

It’s entirely possible the components were not as durable.  Good information for those interested in the KT8900.

[GrouserPad]

3 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

I live in Southern California so I cannot speak to the cold, but I often go off-roading in the low desert/leave my jeep parked in direct summer sun where the outside temps reach 120°F and the inside temps much higher.  With all the radios i've ever had, i have never even given it a thought.. I get in, start the Jeep, and turn on the radio.

That is how you should use your radio.. USE it, don't worry/overthink it. Just use it. 

Cant use a kg1000 in severly cold temps without letting it warm up. The display does not respond to inputs without major lagging.I suppose you could if you didn't need to change anything on the display though. And you don't mind the fan sounding like its going to lock up its bearing lol

[SvenMarbles]

14 minutes ago, GrouserPad said:

Cant use a kg1000 in severly cold temps without letting it warm up. The display does not respond to inputs without major lagging.I suppose you could if you didn't need to change anything on the display though. And you don't mind the fan sounding like its going to lock up its bearing lol

 

That's the style of display that I've had bad luck with. Any of those orange dox matrix style displays. Yes, they freeze in the cold and slow down... After about 3 years of winter cycles, I find, they start to die...

[tcp2525]

1 hour ago, SvenMarbles said:

I love that install! I had a little flip down compartment like that on a previous vehicle that I never knew what to do with. Does that fold in and go away cleanly as well?

Yep, folds away cleanly. You'll never know there's radios in the truck except for the antennas. And if you look in you will see only one of the mics.

[WRYZ926]

I haven't had any problems with heat or cold when it comes to my radios. We go from 1-2 week stretches of single digit temps to 95+ degrees most of the summer here in Missouri.  We just had several nights with temps below 0 and no issues with my radios at temps as low as -11.

I had a Radio Shack CM radio in my car wheel stationed at Ft Irwin Ca. and never had a problem with the heat while there. Seeing air temps at 120 or higher was normal in July and August. The car I had at the time didn't have AC either.

[tweiss3]

The published operating temperatures are -20°C ~ +60°C, which is -4F to 140F. You were definitely outside the operating temps. Most of the commercial stuff is rated for -22F to 140F or better. I've never had an issue with my Kenwood stuff, and that comes on when the car starts.

[Radioguy7268]

I've got a concrete ready-mix company in the Mid Atlantic area with over 100 trucks using M1225 and PM400 radios in their fleet. They've been a customer since 1998, and they're still using some of the original radios that we sold to them. They go through palm mics & external speakers (which get clogged with concrete dust) but the radios sit in trucks that are parked outside all the time. They see temps from Zero to 90 every year. They get about as much use and abuse as any radio I've ever seen, and the M1225/PM400's are nearly bulletproof in my experience.

The M1225 is Part 95 type accepted. The PM400 is not, but is just the updated version.

Either one can be bought used all day long for prices similar to any of the CCR models listed above. Many sellers will program them for you.

[gortex2]

Ive never had issue but all my gear is commercial LMR other than my HAM radio. I run a TMD700 in the wifes JK and for 10 years in upstate NY had not one issue. 

[Lscott]

One problem with extreme temperature swings is frequency drift. I noticed this many years ago with my Icom IC-706MKIIG on SSB. I had to mess with the RIT control for a while until the radio warmed up during the winter. I had to swap out the reference frequency oscillator for a TCXO one to reduce the frequency drifting all over the place in cold weather until the cabin warmed up.  Learned my lesson. If the radio has an option for a TCXO buy it and don't cry over the cost.

Some of the higher quality VHF, and particularly UHF, repeaters have an option for an OCXO reference oscillator. This is even more critical on the dual mode analog/digital models. You won't see an OCXO option for a mobile radio that I've seen. They suck a lot of power and can take a significant amount of time to heat up and stabilize. Not really practical for a mobile radio that might get switched on/off multiple times a day. 

[Davichko5650]

On 1/26/2025 at 10:42 AM, SteveShannon said:

I take no measures to prevent this and honestly I haven’t seen it occur

I have not seen this here in Minnesota as far as dimming with age or freezing.  When it's well below zero they tend to take additional time to fully display, but they come on fully after at most 20-30 seconds at -20. This on Kenwood, Yaesu and Retivis rigs in the truck.