I keep mine turned off 24/7, they last forever.
I keep mine turned off 24/7, they last forever.
Not sure this is the proper forum but here i go. Just wandering if you guys leave your radios on all the time or turn them off when not using them. I am mostly speaking about base station transceiver/receiver. I for one leave my radios on all the time but not really sure if i should or not. What do you guys do ? any recommendations ?
It's definitely not. The temperature difference between on and off is far less with solid state.
I agree there . Depends on your situation. Older scanners for instance that have a dimmer switch will keep the led bulbs lasting longer. Ham rados that use certain type of bulbs burn out if left on all the time (Alinco 1200) for instance. But my FT-990 runs 24/7.I had equipment at work that had been powered up continuously for 20+ years. Honestly, we were afraid to turn it off since we were never sure if it would turn back on again.
There's some logic to keeping it turned on all the time if the power supply is stable.
My main transceiver, Icom 746Pro, I turn off after using simply because I don't want to leave the power supply turned on. I do leave a few choice scanners on 24/7, my BCD536HP, SDS200, and my BCT15X.
Still, I'm not sure if I want to leave my 2 meter rig monitoring the local repeater just so I can wake up out of the bed to hear some jaw jacking. The price of radio vigilance I guess.
This thread got me to consider leaving on more of my gear 24 hours a day on trial basis. Last night around 2 AM, a lonely Ham was talking to another, with the one man having medical trouble and in town for medical appointments. It was a good thing, a true productive use of the radio Service, helping someone even if it wasn't an emergency.
Still, I'm not sure if I want to leave my 2 meter rig monitoring the local repeater just so I can wake up out of the bed to hear some jaw jacking. The price of radio vigilance I guess.
As for unattended, I'll probably go back to turning everything off. As already stated in the thread, if you are in attendance of your equipment if something blows up or starts on fire, you can quickly react and stop the problem. If something lights up when you aren't there, you can't do a thing.
My radio has a volume control.