Winter Radio Care?

[N0XJO]

Now that Winter is near, any tips for using mobile radios in the winter?  It gets down to minus 30f here in Minnesota, my radio is in the trunk with a seperation kit.  I'm concerned the extreme temps may do funny things with the radio.  

Thoughts anyone?

[K5LXP]

The only real risk to a radio would be frost and moisture condensation.  Anywhere in the interior and  the trunk is usually OK.  Check the spec's on the radio.  The Icom 706 for instance is rated for +14 to +140F.  -30F is pretty well below the rated specification.  That doesn't mean it won't work, just that it's not guaranteed to meet published specifications.  I would bet that the LCD would be unreadable until it warmed up, and that frequency error and drift would be noticable.  I used to live in WI, ME and near the arctic circle and I was solved the problem of cold radios by moving to NM.  :-)

Mark K5LXP
Albuquerque, NM

[K0BG]

Mark is correct about the LCD in the 706, and I'm sure most other radios too. In my case, 12 below was enough to make the display unreadable for about 15 minutes. When this happens, it appears not to work although the greenish color is there. I didn't notice the drift, although I'm sure it was there, too.

As for high temps, if the display gets too hot (Mark should know about this one!) it turns fully black. A little air conditioning fixes the problem in a couple of minutes.

Alan, KØBG
www.k0bg.com