"Gordon" wrote in news:11srl5kllv56b14
@corp.supernews.com:

Why does the above draw 5 ma when turned off? Had this sucker hooked
up
direct to the batt and over several months, it drained the it.
Gordon


The radio manufacturers, in their efforts to make them as cheap as
possible, aka consumer cheap, leave 12VDC on the RF power amplifier IC
Brick bolted to the rear heat sink all the time. The high amperage
doesn't go through the little transistor radio power switch you switch on
and off from the front panel.

The IC brick runs Class C because marine radio uses FM transmitters, and
this is normally just fine. Class C doesn't conduct until you press the
transmit button and the RF from the driver stage forces it into
conduction past the bias point.

Unfortunately, in our efforts to make it "consumer cheap", the tiny
gaskets around the speaker, various controls, case fittings, etc., have a
tendency to leak, they hope past the end of the warranty period.
Seawater spray, a great conductor, eating away at every component it
touches inside the box, forms a little resistor between the pins on the
IC brick, between the always-on 12V pin and the bias set point pins,
turning on the IC brick all the time. I had a Standard Eclipse + this
happened to that killed the jetboat battery deader'n hell because its IC
brick drew THREE AMPS ALL THE TIME! It even killed the battery with the
1.5A float charger running! The heat sink, heated with 40 watts from the
brick, was hot!

All the radios I know of are wired like this. The only safe cure is to
ALWAYS turn off the BREAKER to all the cheap marine electronics crap
every time you turn it off. Power disconnected, no current.

Of course, this radio with the salt spray eating away at the components
and circuit board inside is toast. Buy another radio. This one is gone!

May I suggest trying the Icom, instead of Standard, this time. I
replaced my Eclipse + twice before giving up and replaced them with an
Icom M59 into the same hole in the jetboat. The M59 is still being used
by the boat's new owner and works just fine aboard "Tess Tickles II"...
(c;

Sorry it ruined your battery. It ruined mine, too.