On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 12:35:27 -0500, Larry W4CSC
wrote:
I had a Standard Eclipse Plus destroy my battery in my jetboat. Seawater
leaked in around the "sealed, waterproof" speaker...drizzle back along the
main circuit board into the pins of the RF power amp brick which is ALWAYS
powered up, even when the radio is off.

===========================

Larry, with all due respect, a real boat would have the radio wired
through a circuit breaker and/or battery switch.

Wayne.B wrote in
:

Larry, with all due respect, a real boat would have the radio wired
through a circuit breaker and/or battery switch.



Whoa! The radio WAS wired through a fuse panel! 3 amps doesn't blow a 10A
fuse and the 3A gave no indication (smoke, fire, etc.) that it was
happening until I turned my key to be met with total silence.

I plugged it into 12v again and measured the drain....nearly 3A dead on the
nose. The salt shorting out the pins on the power amp IC had changed the
bias on the IC between pins from class C (no current with no RF drive) to
sort of class A (always conducting, even with the power switch off!)

It just sat there converting my 115AH deep cycle/starting battery into a
hot heat sink.....dammit.