this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
53 points (94.9% liked)
Amateur Radio
993 readers
11 users here now
General amateur radio (ham radio) chat, questions, and news
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Voltage is generally standardised to 13.8 V (don't ask me why).
I don't know what exact radio that is, but it looks like it can probably transmit at 50 W.
13.8v is the charging voltage of lead acid batteries. So it stuck.
That's a ic-7000 and it does 100w out on hf.
It looks like for FM it can go up to 100w.
https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/ico-ic-7000
Ah makes sense: alternator voltage of a car. I assume it works essentially just as well on 12 V, but USB PD, as of today, can not do 100 W or ~9 A at 12 V.
Amateur radios are generally spec'd at 13.8v plus or minus either 10% or 15% so that they work on a non-running car (12.something volts) or if an alternator is running a bit hot. A 100W radio like this is pretty much always going to require around 20amps at full power -but they have adjustable transmit power. They don't transmit as well at the lower voltage range, but most people don't worry about it.