12V Power

[w3zi]

I have been carrying my Astron 12 supply with me and of course its a heavy beast. Not sure why I initally started carrying it in the first place but I have been thinking of simply wiring directly to the Chassis Battery and leaving the supply at the home QTH. Anyone else been through the same routine or think of any reason to carry the supply around? Thanks and 73 -- Mark W3ZI:radio:

[Radio]

I lug around an Astron RS-35M. The only reasons I personaly have:

1. I really, really like Astron power supplys.
2. One less thing to load on the 12 vdc house batteries. (it's a 5th wheel, for what that's worth.) When/if we boondock I carry a deep cycle battery just for the radio.
3. Whatever noise the converter makes is not in my radio. There may not even be any noise in the converter for all I know.
4. Got the PS for free. It was in the "obsolete" bin at a place I once worked and I talked them into giving it to me instead of scrapping it. It's just like the one on the home bench. I just leave in the trailer.

I did put a 12v cigarette lighter jack in the bedroom to run a Midland weather radio when not attached to power. Seems the 9v battery inside the radio would die before we reached the next campground...:( so I stowed the wall wort PS and did the 12v thing.

[One Country Boy]

I leave a 35 amp (metered) Astron PS in our 5'er as well. I like the Astron supplies. I run a 50 amp metered supply in the stick house. I dunno, I just like the idea of running my gear on the PS rather than tapping into the 12v system of our 5'er.

[wa8yxm]

Well...On my motor home I used the HOUSE battery.. The converter is a Progressive Dynamics IntellaPower 9180 with charge wizard

This converter puts out,near as I can tell PURE DC (well, technically it's got 3 volts of ripple on a 20 hour cycle,, that is one 3 volt ripple cycle every 20 hours you won't ever hear that, Takes a volt meter to see it)

I tapped the power for my TS-2000 right at the house fuse panel (The TS-2000 sits directly behind the panel anyway, I had to lengthen the power cable by about 1 foot due to routing it out of site)

I can not tell, from the radio, if teh house batteries are even connected it's that clean

Plus if "The lights go out in Detroit" in the middle of a QSO.. I don't miss a word The radio is running on batteries as fast as electrons can reverse direction (And that's FAST)

I kind of wonder why PD does not market the 9100 as a power supply, Without the charge controller I suspect it would be very nice 80 amps in my case. 960 watts at 12 volt, about 1100 on the input side.

[K3NOQ/Mobile]

When wife suggested that I get back into the hobby (we're fulltimers), I bought a IC7000 and never even considered a heavy 110ac/12vdc power supply. I wired directly to the motor homes twin 31 series house batteries and it has worked FB. Never hear any trash on the 12 volt line. If you've got good 12vdc power available, why not use it? I split-mounted the IC7000 chassis near the Batteries and the control head next to my F A chair/computer. Very Comfy.

[w3zi]

Thanks for the feedback. I think I will grab a scope from work and take a look at the 12v coming from the inverter's charging system for the batteries. Got started thinking about this when we went our fist long trip last month and I finally got around to weighing the coach and found I was right at max gross weight of 22,000. I have been working here in South Florida on a temporary basis and living in the coach so guess I have collected to much stuff. Anyway, its a short run from the batteries under the steps to the operating position and I will give it a try. Thanks and 73. Mark W3ZI

[kd8wdave]

I have been carrying my Astron 12 supply with me and of course its a heavy beast. Not sure why I initally started carrying it in the first place but I have been thinking of simply wiring directly to the Chassis Battery and leaving the supply at the home QTH. Anyone else been through the same routine or think of any reason to carry the supply around? Thanks and 73 -- Mark W3ZI:radio:

I use a feed off the converter with a diode into a 17 ah gel-cell batt for my radios. Since I don't run over 50 w pep it works just fine. The converter(house batts also) keeps the gel-cell peaked up as needed. No need to carry the astron at all.

cheers

[Vette Racer]

Well, just for giggles, I use a Iota 30 amp converter as a power supply at home for my 857 Yaesu and sometimes use it in the 5th wheel trailer too. It works fine without batteries but I also use the batteries in the trailer fed off a PDC 60a converter as my power source when needed. Bottom line is as long as the power is constant and clean, IMO, you are good to go.