[ARDF] Fuses in foxboxes?

[Jay Hennigan]

On Tue, 30 Sep 2003, Kenneth E. Harker wrote:

>     I'm getting closer to getting my first hidden transmitter built.
>
>     I plan to use a 7Ah 12 VDC gel cell in each box.  Each gel cell will
> be connected to an HT, an 80M transmitter, and a PicCon.  I think I would
> like to uses fuses in the + lines, just in case something goes wrong.
> Should I (a) use a single fuse near the battery and before I split off
> to the three devices, (b) use three separate fuses one near each of the
> three devices in the box, or (c) do something else?

A single fuse as close to the power source as practical should be fine.

You're really just trying to protect the internal wiring in the event of
a short.  If a component fails shorted in a device, that device is already
toast so the fuse doesn't save the device, just the wiring and battery
from melting down.

Take the key-down current of the 80m plus the 2m HT, add them up, double
it, and use a slow-blow of that value.  Should give adequate protection
without nuisance blowing.

-- 
Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Administration - jay at west.net
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