Motorola HT000 Convertacom

[sgtmatt]

Hi

Does anybody use the Convertacom for the Motorola HT1000 just wondering how they work I am concidering buying one, also are they easy to install? please e-mail me at ctx54635@centurytel.net

 

[CCHLLM]

It's called an MTVA and it will cook the battery just as sure as hell if you let it. Personal experience here, and especially if you use it as your mobile unit when in the vehicle. The lure is that it makes your portable a mobile unit, especially if it has the RF amp, too, but there are some real drawbacks you should be aware of before making the plunge.

Because the charger portion will protect the battery and not allow it to charge unless the battery temp is in a "safe" range (below ~85 degrees or above ~40 degrees), hot interior temps in summer and cold temps in winter mean the charger will only trickle charge at or near the edges of the safe range, and not at all above or below.

If you use it as a mobile unit and as yer portable, just remember that it will begin the rapid charge routine each time you place it in the charger, and since it uses a temp vs charge level routine, it lets the battery get pretty warm before it backs off to trickle. This repeated heating just kills the batteries and never lets them properly discharge, so when you repeatedly pop the portable outta the MTVA and then place it back there several times per day, it'll never allow the battery to properly cycle. The long and the short of it is that you can expect a pretty smackin' reduction in battery life.

My experience using it this way every day gets me about 6 months out of a battery before it becomes relatively unusable at about 3-4 hrs per charge, and much less if you need to talk a lot. At the price of MotherMoto's units, that would be unacceptable except that mine are provided by the mother organization. The only aftermarket batteries that can hang with the Moto variety in this kind of abuse will cost nearly what the Moto units do when Motos are quantity discounted to a government entity.

I use JT1000 with an MTVA and all I can say is it's great BUT.......there's no substitute for a real mobile unit.

 

[Grog]

Hi wx4cbh, I was just wondering what you were up to. Haven't seen you around too often.

I've had the same concerns on a Saber SVA, how hard would it be to wire a switch in the charging circuit to just use the Jedi MTVA as a base so it will connect to the external antenna (and amp if installed). I hope to be a "Jedi Master" this year with the costs dropping, so any advise will be useful.

73

 

[CCHLLM]

Well, been busier than a three legged dog tryin' to lift a leg in a canoe in Hatteras surf, so not much time fer keyboarding.

With battery and electronics technology advances in the nearly two decades since the Jedi was designed, I hear things are much better with the new stuff, but I can't speak from any personal or professional experiences that I can pass along.

One of the effects of the MTVA and it's many RF physical contact points is a bit of signal loss between the antenna and the internal RF circuits. RF-wise, we gotta remember that on the units with the RF amp, there's the antenna connection on both sides of the RF amp, the jumper between the amp and the charger, the connection at the radio's side connector, and the portable's internal antenna switching connections. All these together spell signal loss, especially any connections which might be the spring loaded pin-in-a-slide that MotherMoto and others are so prone to using.

Granted it ain't exactly designed for DX work, but in areas where there is ample RX/TX coverage, which is what it's designed for, you'll never notice the difference. When you have a mobile unit in the vehicle capable of a common freq, you'll notice about 3db or so difference on the RX side in favor of the mobile with a given that the two have similar antennas mounted where one is as consistent as the other. The loss on the TX side is not as noticeable unless you're in the fringes. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.