-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
SomeJoe7777
Marginally-Known Member
I know, I saw several approaching $1000 that looked quite nice, but I suppose there are many I haven't seen that do even more with correspondingly higher prices.
Bill Price
Active Member
I know, I saw several approaching $1000 that looked quite nice, but I suppose there are many I haven't seen that do even more with correspondingly higher prices.
If one has the wherewithal, one can spend in excess of $10k for the rig alone. But if one wants to chase DX or contest, one can spend easily over $200K on towers and antennas. That is, if one has the wherewithal. If one wants to go on the cheap, one can find a used quality transceiver for under $1K and build some dipoles or buy a used tower or two and build your own yagi farm.
DrGene
Member
A great HF affordable radio is the ICom 7300. I got one for my daughter for xmas.
I've been wanting to build a small cw transmitter to go with my IC756P3 which has a good RX but the TX is burned out.
I have no specific suggestions for you. I see others are commenting. Maybe one of them has a great suggestion. Personally I find qrp operation frustrating. I run 800 watts cw on an AL80b amp and phased dipoles on 40 meters.
Here is the little IC 7100 not in the Tesla but on phased dipoles pointed at Europe this afternoon and DX station.
VIDEO0058.mp4
I took the IC7100 out of the Tesla and put in the FT8100 see attached photo.
73 de k5gp gene
Attachments
SomeJoe7777
Marginally-Known Member
Thanks, @DrGene. I'm going to be starting with a QRP kit for 40m, it has about 5W of transmit power. Probably won't get out too far, but it'll be enough to try. Only $49. This will give me some basics and learn some stuff, then I'll take on designing and building my own, which will actually be even simpler and more primitive.
TX is burned out.. ohh that just makes it more fun making contacts with LOW power! haha.
SomeJoe7777
Marginally-Known Member
Bill Price
Active Member
800W?
Hahahahahaha. I would venture to guess most people (perhaps 75% or more) that have been a ham for any amount of time run anywhere from 500 to 1500 watts of power? Personally, I find that 700-800 is adequate. Doubling your power to the maximum allowed (1500 watts or 1.5 kW) only gets an increase of roughly 3dB.......10*log10(2) = 3.01dB.
BTW.....to somewhat answer the question as to what rig to buy, here are the top five rated base stations for performance/dollars. I used to run the FT-991a and still run a Yaesu so I'm biased towards them. But different strokes for different folks. I agree that the Icom IC-7300 is a great rig.
1. Yaesu FT-450D
2. Icom IC-718
3. Icom IC-7300
4. Yaesu FT-991a
5. Kenwood TS-480HX
Last edited:
SomeJoe7777
Marginally-Known Member
Awesome, thanks! Those are a little more than I want to spend right now, since I'm just getting my feet wet, but if I really get into this, I'll be looking at those and others, I'm sure.
Thanks again for the suggestions!
Drawing power directly from a Tesla 12V battery is a great way to get continual (mistaken) battery needs replacing errors in your car since it can’t track the draw and sees the voltage drop (that it has no idea why occurred) as an indication that the battery is failing.
If using power from the 12V system, you have to tap in after where it tracks current (no idea where this is).
Disagree all you want without actually saying anything, but it doesn’t make me wrong.
SomeJoe7777
Marginally-Known Member
Yes, this is actually correct. See some of the dashcam threads for further discussion.
The background on this is that on the Model S and Model X, the 12V battery can fail without warning and leave the car stranded, because nothing can run without the 12V system active -- you can't run the computers, you can't pick up the main contactor in the pack, you can't even open the doors. Tesla wanted to avoid this at all costs with the Model 3.
So on the Model 3, Tesla ditched the standard auto fuse box and replaced it with a computerized circuit breaker matrix. Every milliamp of current that passes through those circuit breakers is audited by the computer. The computer constantly compares the number of amp-horurs drawn out of the 12V battery and compares it to the number of amp-hours put into the 12V battery by the DC-DC converter/charger. That allows the computer to constantly estimate the efficiency and charging performance of the 12V battery, and can watch it's degredation over time. Using that info, it can warn the owner about a failing 12V battery long before the car will be stranded somewhere.
BUT, if you modify the electrical system such that you are pulling amp-hours of energy out of the 12V battery without going through the circuit breaker matrix, that means the energy you're pulling out of the battery on that wire isn't being audited. This will cause the computer to think the 12V is about to fail when it actually isn't because to the computer, the amount of amp-hours needed to charge the battery is way more than it's supposed to be.
Tesla will not warranty your 12V battery if they see you have an electrical system modification like this.
Do yourself a favor, and if you need to provide power to an aftermarket accessory on the Model 3, tap into the power system somewhere after the circuit breaker matrix so that your aftermarket accessory power gets audited. You will avoid the 12V probems that way.
SomeJoe7777
Marginally-Known Member
@Bill Price Sorry you disagree Bill, but it's correct. There's numerous examples of people running into this back in 2018 when it wasn't known, in a lot of cases with dashcam installations.
If you want to connect accessories directly to your 12V battery, it's your car so do what you want.
If you want to connect accessories directly to your 12V battery, it's your car so do what you want.
Make sure you route the antenna coax around the bottom of the trunk seal and not the top. Otherwise it provides a path for water into the trunk.
I'd consider an Elecraft if you're into HF CW, and they can be purchased in kit form as well. One of the best receivers on the market.
W6FG
Just installed a anytone 578 DMR mobile in my model 3! The blue tooth is amazing!
Attachments
Here's an update. I traded in my model 3 on a Model Y with the new console. The IC7100 no longer fits down inside the front part of the console. But, it sits perfectly on the side ledges. So I just retrieve it from inside and an put it on the ledge and let the door partially close.
Appreciate the update! I installed my IC-7100, along with Tarheel 100A and a Diamond 2M/70cm antenna on my 2021 MYP recently. I mounted the main transceiver using an MB-62 in the right rear cargo well just inside the hatch. I run the HF coax and Tarheel control cable behind the side trim, through the vent, and inside the bumper to where my hitch receiver sits. The Tarheel is on an offset hitch mount. The control unit is mounted on a heavy-duty Lido cupholder mount (very sturdy), as I want to use the console storage space for crap. I'm not using Tesla's 12V to power the radio, as it draws 22A on transmit and the accessory outlets are rated for 15 max, plus, I didn't want to run a 12V power all the way from the battery in the frunk. I use a Bioenno 30AH LiFePO4 battery constantly connected to a DC-DC converter, which draws power from the Tesla's rear accessory outlet as necessary. The Bioenno also powers the Tarheel antenna motor and the TuneMatic TM-1 that automatically tunes it. I routed the head unit cable along with the TuneMatic remote control cable to the front using split loom hidden under trim via underneath the rear bench seat. However, I couldn't figure out where I could drill a 1/2" XYL-acceptable hole for the cable in the console area. Could you please tell me how and where you routed your cables? de AE4NT
Last edited:
Similar threads
