I have been adding various gadgets to my Ford Taurus to bring battery power into my passenger area so I can get rid of my cigarette lighter plug for my 2m/440 radio.

Adding a wire to my original battery posts was a problem so I used replacement posts from the car audio market. This turned out to be a mistake.

The original equipment battery posts on my car were the molded type which left no room to add any terminal or lug to the tightening hardware. So I turned to the Hi-Fi car audio market to see how the massive power needs of the “booming” stereos are met. All I found were fine looking chrome products. I really did not care about the chrome, but the terminal did have multiple holes for four wires: two large and two small. It looks like this…

Scosche battery terminal

Nice features include a way to attach your large gauge starter cable, the car’s power cable and your additional power cable for your extra equipment. Unfortunately, my Taurus’ starter cable is small and won’t fill even the smaller socket. I stuffed the car’s negative starter cable and power system ground into one of the smaller holes. Since I was not quite ready to install the rest of my power system, I left the positive terminal stock.

Then the big 2010 snow in Northern Virginia occurred. The house power went out so I retrieved the battery from my Taurus to run my 12 Vdc backup sump pump. This worked great. However, when I put the battery back into the Taurus and tightened the Allen screw to snug up to the negative post, the mechanism inside the Scosche terminal broke. Off to the auto parts store I went.

The only battery terminals available at this particular auto parts store were the simple lead clamp style. I purchased two installing one on the negative lead. This terminal has only one place to clamp wires. I decided to put not only the starter wire and the electrical system wire, but also my negative transceiver power wire into this clamp. I was worried about just shoving all three wires into this clamp, but, in the end, I got it in. After tightening, all three wires feel very secure. The car started with no issues suggesting this method is working for now. Here is a picture of the new terminal with all three wires…

Lead Terminal - Simple

No this isn’t much to look at, but makes the point this simple $1.25 post works just as well or, in my case, even better than the fancy chrome terminal. Don’t get me wrong, if you are pimping your ride, these chrome terminals look great, but I am trying to pimp my power.

This figure reveals the old and new posts along with the broken piece.

Fancy and traditional battery post terminals.

That extra sleeve sitting on the battery handle near the broken piece came with the chrome post adapter and was needed to make it work on the negative terminal. Yes, the negative terminal is the larger of the two posts on batteries so I don’t know why I needed the sleeve, but I did.

Conclusion

I was confident the Automotive HiFi accessories would provide benefits to the ham community with their similar peak current electrical environment. A post with multiple output ports seemed like just the thing for grabbing additional power straight from the battery terminals. In practice, it turns out to be not a good fit… at least for my Ford Taurus. The Ford’s wires were too small to take advantage of the large wire holes. The chrome post adapter easily broke with routine use. In the end, a good old lead terminal worked just fine even with three wires stuffed into it. I will check this terminal’s wire clamp often to be sure of its longevity.

I think I can now replace the positive terminal with confidence the $1.25 terminal works better than the chrome model.

I wonder if any of you had your display unit for your Kenwood TM-G707 2/440 transceiver go blank and reboot even while the radio operates just fine.

If I move the wire with respect to the control head in a certain position this happens.

Is this just a case of dirty contacts between the little cable adapter and the control head or have any of you seen the wire in the cable actually break?

I guess this question applies to any remote display head models from any manufacturer. I had heard Kenwood units are especially prone to this behavior.

Thanks for your observations.

Your forked over $13 to take the test (some VEs charge nothing… shop around). Perhaps you forked over another $13… It happens.

…and…

You finally passed your amateur radio exam and you are off to the nearest candy store to get your first mobile.

Hey, congratulations… you deserve it.

After you get your mobile all set up in your vehicle you might be eager to head down to the local DMV to secure your very own call sign license plate. Before proceeding any further check out the ARRL web page summarizing each state’s rules on this.

OK great you have read the web page. Do you live in a state that requires you to maintain two-way radio equipment in your vehicle as a condition of having those plates? If you do, you might re-assess why you want these plates in the first place. Even if you don’t you should exercise restraint and read these…

• The requirement to have two-way equipment in your car whether you always want it in there or not.
• You and your car are spectacularly easy to identify as anyone can look up your call sign on the many call sign look up web sites. At least your long random plate number can only, I hope, be resolved to your name and address by police in most circumstances.
• Your plates identify to would be thieves expensive, removable, equipment is inside your vehicle. However, I do admit ham gear is not as liquid as, say, GPS units. Thieves may initially not know the difference and take it anyway.

Still want the plates? That’s fine. Let’s examine some good reasons to have them…

• You reach General and put HF mobile in your car. Any decent HF mobile antenna system looks lovely to us, but looks weird and maybe even nefarious to others. Your ham plates may reassure the suspicious you really aren’t some bumbling terrorist.
• You volunteer frequently at some event that utilizes amateur radio. This is rare these days.
• You want others to know you are an amateur radio operator…?

Perhaps you just want them for no reason at all. It is a free country, for the moment anyway, so go for it if you want to.