R8600: Powering On/Off Question

[ridgescan]

Both my R75 and R8600 run on each their own 13.8V supplies. My question is this; is it ok to leave the radio's power switch in the ON position and use the power switch on the supply only for on/off? I've been in the habit of doing this on the R75 for a while. My concern is, can I safely do this with the R8600 too? Or is this not a best practice?

 

[KB4MSZ]

It's not a best practice. If the supply surges or the output circuit shorts it could very well damage the radio. Best to turn on the radio after the supply has loaded up and the output has stabilized. Having a built-in or accessory volt meter at the supply output is helpful in this regard should the supply start putting out an improper voltage. Turning off the supply to power down the radio is fine provided the radio is switched back to off before the supply is powered back up.

 

[ridgescan]

KB4MSZ thanks. These Icoms require voltage to even power-off so that's a no-go. But based upon your advice I better stop this on BOTH rigs. You made me realize the point about the power supply's "stabilizing" thing. I've been too trusting of those supplies being stabilized right at the switch-on.

 

[AOR-262]

Both my R75 and R8600 run on each their own 13.8V supplies. My question is this; is it ok to leave the radio's power switch in the ON position and use the power switch on the supply only for on/off? I've been in the habit of doing this on the R75 for a while. My concern is, can I safely do this with the R8600 too? Or is this not a best practice?

I purchased my IC-R8600 back in April of 2018. Only twice in that time have I switched the power off to the receiver -- only because I needed to use the power socket for something else temporarily. Same with my AOR 8600 Mk2 -- that hasn't been switched off since at a guess I'd say 2+ years. On both receivers I just press and hold the Power button and turn them off that way.

 

[majoco]

If the supply surges or the output circuit shorts it could very well damage the radio. Best to turn on the radio after the supply has loaded up and the output has stabilized.

Agree with what KB4MSZ said - I designed and built a power supply way back in the 80's to supply 12 volts at up to 10 Amps which I now use to power all my 12 volt radios and free up some power points. The output is switched from the front panel and I can read the voltage before turning the output on. It is also protected from over-current which is adjustable and over-voltage by an SCR crowbar which hopefully will pop the fuse but I doubt if it would be quick enough. But I still turn all the radios off at their switches just in case! The only time the power supply has failed is when a friend wanted to use it to charge a gell-cell - he did what all non-electrically trained people do - connect the battery then turn on the power supply at the main power switch! Popped one of four MJE2955's to a dead short and popped the fuse next - I guess the gell-cell survived!

Incidentally I have wound the output down to 12 volts, not 13.8. On inspection, all the radios have voltage regulators in them which reduce to 8volts or 5volts - so the extra 1.8volts is just dissipiated in heat inside the radio. I haven't noticed any reduction in receiver performance.

 

[ridgescan]

I purchased my IC-R8600 back in April of 2018. Only twice in that time have I switched the power off to the receiver -- only because I needed to use the power socket for something else temporarily. Same with my AOR 8600 Mk2 -- that hasn't been switched off since at a guess I'd say 2+ years. On both receivers I just press and hold the Power button and turn them off that way.

To be clear on the bolded part of your post, you mean you press and hold the power button on the power supplies of those rigs?

 

[AOR-262]

To be clear on the bolded part of your post, you mean you press and hold the power button on the power supplies of those rigs?

Yup -- see attached pictures. Just press the buttons that turn them off -- just to clarify, .

 

[majoco]

I'm not too sure about the "push the button" to turn off especially if the radio is being run from an "always on" wall-wart, especially if the button is marked "Stby". If there is a lever-type switch or a rotary switch that definitely says "Off" then I'll believe it. Anything that turns on from a remote control or a timer is definitely still "On" all the time, just dozing. Any large bit of equipment with a high stability oscillator in it is liable to be "On" as well, although it may have a "Stby" or "Oven" light on.

 

[AOR-262]

I'm not too sure about the "push the button" to turn off especially if the radio is being run from an "always on" wall-wart, especially if the button is marked "Stby". If there is a lever-type switch or a rotary switch that definitely says "Off" then I'll believe it. Anything that turns on from a remote control or a timer is definitely still "On" all the time, just dozing. Any large bit of equipment with a high stability oscillator in it is liable to be "On" as well, although it may have a "Stby" or "Oven" light on.

What's wrong with pushing the Power button to turn the radio off? Like what has been previously mentioned, if every time when you've finish with your radio and turn it off at the mains -- I'm with what KB4MSZ said, that is every time you switch the PSU back on at the mains power, there's going to be that surge of power slamming into the PSU which the circuitry has to immediately deal with in a way of resistors, transformers and all sorts of other electrical components. Everyone has their own way -- I'm sticking to my way -- the power supplies for both radios are ON 24/7. So yes there's still power going into both radios -- never had any issues before, no overheating, nothing.

(by the way, if you have one then you'll already know but if you dont ... the AOR 8600 Mk2 does have a rotary volume dial which if you turn fully anti-clockwise and give the dial a harder turn when it stops, it then clicks to turn off the power completely -- no need to turn the PSU off at the mains unless you're one of these campaigners for turning off all electrical devices at the mains power to help save the planet reducing CO2 emissions

 

[majoco]

"it then clicks to turn off the power completely"

Fair enough - why didn't you say that in the first place?

 

[AOR-262]

"it then clicks to turn off the power completely"

Fair enough - why didn't you say that in the first place?

I might have misread your reply -- I thought you had concerns about leaving the PSU on 24/7. Some people like to switch electrical devices off and unplug the plug from the power socket.

 

[majoco]

But I don't know the details of the R8600 - does it have an internal power supply or does it run solely from an external 12volt supply? If it has a proper power switch on the volume control then I suspect it has an internal power supply - but it can do both like my R7000. I run my R7000 from the big external supply mainly to keep the heat generated by the internal power supply out. Nearly all of my stuff runs on 12volts except for a JRC NRD 515, a Skanti R5000 and a HF multicoupler - those three are on all the time to keep the stability up - they don't seem to get too warm at all.

My mother was a demon for unplugging everything from the wall until she bought a new TV and video recorder - both of which lost all their station memories when unplugged! She quite quickly got the message after the TV repair man's third visit!

 

[ridgescan]

Marty the R8600 has a power button but requires an outside 13.8V supply-hence my thread question. I was hoping to get away with doing the one step of powering the radio on/off via the power supply switch, leaving the radio's button in the ON status. But this may not be safe for the R8600.

 

[majoco]

I'm getting mixed between the two receivers now - it's the AOR that has the volume control power switch. As I think we all agreed right at the start, it's not good practice to turn an external power supply "on" by the main power switch if it is connected to a radio that is turned on already.

 

[AOR-262]

Marty the R8600 has a power button but requires an outside 13.8V supply-hence my thread question. I was hoping to get away with doing the one step of powering the radio on/off via the power supply switch, leaving the radio's button in the ON status. But this may not be safe for the R8600.

@ridgescan I don't know what you are worried about? Like I said, I've had my IC-R8600 since April 2018 -- that's about 9 months ago! I've never switched the power supply off -- that is the PSU has been switched on, power from the mains supply going into it for 9 months -- never hard any issues with that. To turn my 8600 off I just press and hold the Power button for a second until is displays 'Powering Off' on the screen -- that's all I do.

 

[AOR-262]

I'm getting mixed between the two receivers now - it's the AOR that has the volume control power switch. As I think we all agreed right at the start, it's not good practice to turn an external power supply "on" by the main power switch if it is connected to a radio that is turned on already.

@majoco That is probably me adding confusion into this conversation/thread. This is not about the AOR 8600 Mk2, the original question from ridgescan was his concern with powering off his devices. Forget the AOR.

 

[ridgescan]

@ridgescan I don't know what you are worried about? Like I said, I've had my IC-R8600 since April 2018 -- that's about 9 months ago! I've never switched the power supply off -- that is the PSU has been switched on, power from the mains supply going into it for 9 months -- never hard any issues with that. To turn my 8600 off I just press and hold the Power button for a second until is displays 'Powering Off' on the screen -- that's all I do.

My issue here is not "leaving the power supply on"-you brought that up here and that's what is confusing everyone. That's your thing-leaving the power supplies on 24-7. I don't want to do that. I like 'em off when I'm done.

 

[AOR-262]

My issue here is not "leaving the power supply on"-you brought that up here and that's what is confusing everyone. That's your thing-leaving the power supplies on 24-7. I don't want to do that. I like 'em off when I'm done.

@ridgescan Ok, cool. We're back on track. I think you know what I do with my receiver PSUs. You've already been given an answer by @KB4MSZ and I would say that I agree with his reply.

 

[majoco]

Yup, that's fine - to each his own. I keep my HF receivers on all the time as the Skanti has many phase locked loops in it and I think they drift around looking for a lock when turned on from cold - sometimes takes a couple of minutes before it suddenly goes plop and - hey, signals! I really should give it a re-alignment but it needs extender boards to do that and I don't have any.

It might be force of habit too - when I was a radio officer in the UK merchant navy back in the tube era, it was common practice to turn the receivers on at the start of the voyage and turn them off at the end which could be months later - and if the relieving sparks was waiting to board then they probably stayed on for another voyage! I only ever had one failure and that was an RF coil shorting from primary to secondary which applied B+ voltage to the grid of the next tube - it didn't like that!

 

[ridgescan]

Yup, that's fine - to each his own. I keep my HF receivers on all the time as the Skanti has many phase locked loops in it and I think they drift around looking for a lock when turned on from cold - sometimes takes a couple of minutes before it suddenly goes plop and - hey, signals! I really should give it a re-alignment but it needs extender boards to do that and I don't have any.

It might be force of habit too - when I was a radio officer in the UK merchant navy back in the tube era, it was common practice to turn the receivers on at the start of the voyage and turn them off at the end which could be months later - and if the relieving sparks was waiting to board then they probably stayed on for another voyage! I only ever had one failure and that was an RF coil shorting from primary to secondary which applied B+ voltage to the grid of the next tube - it didn't like that!

So it's good that I try to "run" the old Halli and the old Korting at least twice weekly, at least a couple hours a session to keep things limber.