I Replaced my Power Cable and added 20 Watts

I have seen that my ICOM radios are picky about the power supplied to them. In my mobile, running an IC-7000, when the voltage got low, it would suddenly power-cycle. I thought that RF was getting into the rig, but later realized that the input voltage was the more likely problem. I am now using an IC-7600 as my main radio in the home shack. Over the years, I have seen that I have to remove and clean the in-line fuses periodically or the output power will be reduced.

In recent contests, it looked like my output power had been coming down although I had just recently “cleaned” the fuses. But the output power is now down to about 80 watts and it should be 100 watts. So I replaced the power cable with a very short cable and no in-line fuses.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that my output power is now very close to 100 watts on the 7600 meter. Since the fuses were recently cleaned, and still had very shiny contacts, I can only assume that either the fuse holder or the total length of the cable was a problem.

I am going to remove the fuse holders and save this cable for possible future use. There is really no reason to have inline fuses in my shack. For now, I have an additional 20 watts. Wish I had that extra power in recent contests.

Live and learn….