Technical > Ham Radio > Mobile Powered by Cigarette Adapter

Mobile Powered by Cigarette Adapter

While it may "appear" to be adequate, please don't. Unless you run low power, you may have noise on your signal, both transmitted and receive or other assorted things. I had a friend who was running a d700a that way on medium power and he was always complaining about noise and the other hams complained about hise signal into the repeater (was not grounded properly) along with lower current draw.

Please properly wire your radio....

KO4Lloyd

reply to Gbcue
While it's rated at 10 Amps, you'll see quite a bit of voltage drop.

reply to Gbcue
I have a 2 meter rig running on the cigarette adapter and it runs fine even on 65 watts with good signal reports... but I guess I just got Lucky maybe.

What would be a better way? Straight to the Battery terminals? I wasn't sure.

reply to Gbcue
Straight-to-the-battery, both red and black leads, has always been advised, and Motorola includes a power lead made for that, and advises it in their manuals.
HOWEVER....I've run numerous radios, from 5 Watt HT's to Motorola Radius -line, from the cigarette lighter socket with no problems. I recently ran an ICom 2200H at 65 Watts from the 12 Volt accessory jack on my Jeep Cherokee, also with no problems.
have I been 'lucky'? Perhaps, but for a temporary solution it probably depends more on the car and its wiring than anything else. My Jeep has the 12 Volt accessory sockets run directly to the battery, with a separate fuse, and it works just fine.
--
One man's Magic is another man's Engineering.

reply to Gbcue
Depends on the quality of the 12v plug you'll be using - the $0.59 ones won't handle the current - If you can get a heavy duty one, it probably will work, but no guarantees.

reply to Gbcue
Cigarette lighter? No...

Powerpoint? Yes. I do, good signal reports, and its fused at 35amps from the factory.

reply to Gbcue
I would recommend against it. Too many unknowns. The plug may be rated to 10 A but the voltage drop as you approach the limit will be significant. The plugs in the cars I've owned are only fed with maybe 18 awg wire.

There is always a way to run your power lines to the battery. If you tell us what kind of car you have we may be able to suggest a possible route.
--
"It's all coming down!!" - Mike Holmes

2009 Toyota RAV4 Limited V6 4WD.

There you go.

I figured someone would find something on Radioreference. There are lots of radio installation threads. Some professional, some... not so much.
--
"It's all coming down!!" - Mike Holmes

And as it happens to be GBcue is a member over there

reply to Gbcue

reply to Gbcue


As has been noted, many of the newer vehicles have "power points" that accept the cigarette-lighter plugs are are very much to the task at hand. They employ larger wiring, have wired grounds, and are capable of supplying large loads easily.

The older, actual cigarette lighters themselves though, are marginal at best.

reply to Splitpair

reply to Splitpair
I've always mounted my "portable mobile" radios on a piece of wood, or a plastic cutting board. That way I have something to strap them in using the seatbelt on either the passenger seat, or the back seat if I have somebody riding shotgun with me.
--
One man's Magic is another man's Engineering.

reply to burner50

Me 3