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Hard wiring a handheld UHF

For all things Electrical.

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Hard wiring a handheld UHF

Post by Bowhunter »

I have a 5 watt hand held UHF than I cannot find the battery for :oops:

I would like to hard wire it and mount it on my dash for use with a hand held mike.

The battery is 11volts and 450 amp hour...

It does have a car charger that plugs into the ciggy socket and I don't believe it has anything in it to drop the charge voltage (the charger that is) it plugs into a socket in the top of the unit. I cannot tell if there is anything inside the top that might alter the voltage to the 11 v's so it's the same as the battery.

My question is: can I connect two wires (obviously the pos and the neg) through a fused outlet direct to the battery terminals on the unit where the battery would normally contact. This would supply 12 volt power to it...would the extra 1 volt do any damage?

The other option is to go to a battery shop and get a new battery...however, this option is cheaper if it works ;)

thanks in advance,

Luke :P
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Post by familybus »

shouldnt be a prob at all! i ran the exact same idea for yonks in my work ute and no probs! wont hurt it at all! ;)
[color=lime][b]Im not a gyno but ill take a look at it for you![/b][/color]
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Post by DamTriton »

What brand unit is it? You should be able to find something off Ebay, or even second had shops if you look.

You should be able to repack the battery with some NiMH tagged AA cells (Dick Smith)
Last edited by DamTriton on Sun Sep 17, 2006 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
George Carlin, an American Comedian said; "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realise that half of them are stupider than that".
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Post by Bowhunter »

I'll give it a whirl tomorrow.

Of course it serves another purpose, and that is to have a 5 watt unit in my fourbie. If it works I'll even get me a higher power antenna and hook it up to that....

:cool:
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Re: Hard wiring a handheld UHF

Post by michaelcarey »

Bowhunter wrote:I have a 5 watt hand held UHF than I cannot find the battery for :oops:

My question is: can I connect two wires (obviously the pos and the neg) through a fused outlet direct to the battery terminals on the unit where the battery would normally contact. This would supply 12 volt power to it...would the extra 1 volt do any damage?

Luke :P
Remember that during charging the voltage in a car/4x4 is generally more than 12v. Depending on the regulator, it can be up to 14V.
You should be careful with connecting directly where the battery connects on the handheld radio, not all of them have zener diode overvoltage protection like "normal" UHF radios. Generally it's quite hard to fit handheld batteries on backwards so many manufacturers leave reverse polarity/over voltage protection out!
It might work OK when then engine is off, but if the circuit isn't designed for higher than 11V, it might get damaged.
Regards,
Michael.
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Re: Hard wiring a handheld UHF

Post by DamTriton »

michaelcarey wrote:
Bowhunter wrote:I have a 5 watt hand held UHF than I cannot find the battery for :oops:

My question is: can I connect two wires (obviously the pos and the neg) through a fused outlet direct to the battery terminals on the unit where the battery would normally contact. This would supply 12 volt power to it...would the extra 1 volt do any damage?

Luke :P
Remember that during charging the voltage in a car/4x4 is generally more than 12v. Depending on the regulator, it can be up to 14V.
You should be careful with connecting directly where the battery connects on the handheld radio, not all of them have zener diode overvoltage protection like "normal" UHF radios. Generally it's quite hard to fit handheld batteries on backwards so many manufacturers leave reverse polarity/over voltage protection out!
It might work OK when then engine is off, but if the circuit isn't designed for higher than 11V, it might get damaged.
Regards,
Michael.
It'll be fine. They are designed to be left on while they are being charged anyway. A 10 cell NiCad/NiMH pack would be 12V off charge and 13.5-14V while being charged, add in a protection diode and you could be looking at 11 volts or so. In all seriousness use the 12V input on the unit with its car ciggie lighter plug adapter.

It would still help to know what brand it is so we could do a bit more research on it for you.....
George Carlin, an American Comedian said; "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realise that half of them are stupider than that".
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Post by Bowhunter »

Thanks for all the replies!

The UHF is a "Road Runner" Model RR477.

It is identical to my father's Uniden model... not sure of the details of his however.

Luke :P
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Post by Bowhunter »

OK, so I took the plunge and wired it up.

I didn't melt anything and there were no explosions :P Had to be a good start ;)

It will transmit fine, my lil 2 watt uniden handheld wil receive from it no probs.

It will NOT receive however. It is not speaker prob, as when I turn the squelch nob the crackle noise comes out of the speaker... :?

Does anyone have any ideas what it might be? Would it be fixable (is it something I can do or do you think it's internal and needing an expert's attention).

Thanks boys.

Luke
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Post by ausoops »

did you wire it through the battery terminals or the charge socket on the uhf? my old handheld wouldn't receive or transmit whilst connected to the charger through the charge socket.
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Post by Bowhunter »

Straight to the battery terminals...
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Post by Bowhunter »

Hey fellas, can anyone shed some light on this for me?

thanks,

Luke :oops:
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Post by -Scott- »

Bowhunter wrote:Hey fellas, can anyone shed some light on this for me?

thanks,

Luke :oops:
Roll back the changes. Remove your wires, install a battery and see if it still works.
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Post by Bowhunter »

-Scott- wrote:
Bowhunter wrote:Hey fellas, can anyone shed some light on this for me?

thanks,

Luke :oops:
Roll back the changes. Remove your wires, install a battery and see if it still works.
I see where you're coming from but I dont have the battery (lost it moving house or, someone else did :roll: ) and am trying to get this to work instead of forking out the $60 or more that it'd cost to get a new battery...

:P
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Post by Bowhunter »

Alrighty,
so I found the battery, got it repacked, charged it for 5 hrs and switched it on.

It will still send but not recieve :(

Does anyone know of a place at the Gold Coast or perhaps Brissy that might be able to help me out fixing it?

cheers

Luke
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Post by fatcatsam »

You could buy my GME TX 3200 off me for cheap on the gold coast.
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Post by GBC »

is the CT sign lit when you turn the unit on?...
If so turn it off - once for a c.b. or for every channel if it is programmable
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