I don't have any heat sink to mount. Went to the shack and bought the 12 vdc 40 mm fan and mounted using existing screw hole and then drilled another A couple of machine screws and lock nuts to keep a little room for airflow and cooling. 
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Looking at another radio,you can never have to many.
- Thread starter Grogan
- Start date
That will work perfect man. Keep it cool and keep it happy!!! You should be able to rag chew with that on there. Make sure you have a few holes for exhaust as well. Need to get the hot air out. If you aren't using the internal speaker, remove it and let the fan pull the air in and out the speaker grill. Just an idea. Looks good anyway and I'm sure it cools the back of the radio. The heat sink can be bought of EBay for cheap. Take a measurement and see what you need. There are all sizes on the flea bay. A heat sink and that fan will make for one happy radio. The fan should do the trick but the heatsink will disperse it a bit better along with a fan IMO. Again looks good and if it works leave it!! Have fun with it.
the fan is blowing on the back of the radio. I did not cut any holes in the radio. I olny drilled one for the second screw ( there was already one in the coner of the radio) I left a gap between the radio and fan about a 1/4 inch . so the fan blows the air on the back of the radio where the final is located.
That would make sense as to why people are blowing them. I think they are only a 10 watt transistor to begin with. But now I see Grogan what you did. Now that will work for sure!! Keep the back end cold!! Good deal. Looks good as well. And thanks Sleepwalkr for the tip on the finals being over volted. I'll have to check mine and see what the voltage is on mine. I just turned my power back and it helped a lot with the heat issue. I talk on SSB mostly and the radio will get hot or would get hot when you ragchew!! Not anymore with mine and I'm sure not with grogan's radio either with that fan!! Nice job Grogan.
He said that you can get it close if you turn the pot next to the final to about 8 o'clock that it would be pretty close to the right voltage. Here is his YouTube channel if you wanted to check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYc6KzaO4D2qZ-5mjENlQnw
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYc6KzaO4D2qZ-5mjENlQnw
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I was doing some reading on the same problem. How hard is it to adjust to the proper voltage. I have a good meter, Go from the gate or pin 1 to ground ? and adjust the pot next to the final ? RT201 I would love to have it properly adjusted and run cool and still have the fan for added protection, what is the procedure? thanks!!
I know you mentioned cost was a factor but go for the LMR 240. Imo your choice of coax is only second to your choice of antenna. Good luck.
If you just turn the SSB Power back to about 8-10 watts max and set AM power to 3 watt dk and 100% modulation, it should yield a good 1 to 4 ratio. My radio does anyway. Dk is 3 watts and pep is 12 watts. SSB power has been turned back to 8-10 watts. Now radio stays cool. With the fan you added, I wouldn't worry about messing with the bias. If anything monitor temps and like I said turn power back. I don't use AM much so I don't know if the radio gets got after a long rag chew on am but on SSB it stays cool even after a minute or 2 of being keyed up and modulating.
The radio should be ok with the fan. I was going to put an on/off switch for the fan and turn it on when I need it , Don't talk as much as I do on the base. I would like to know how to adjust the Bias on the final. I guess I could make a phone call and find out. One thing I really like and in the mobile for me is a must have feature on the radio in the truck.The SCAN feature .......Turn the squelch down and hit scan.. Ch 19 was quiet and there was a few drivers on ch 12,31 and 8 as the day went on there are people you would never hear all on other channels and the scan feature picks them all up.. Very nice and maby over looked on some radios. I also hit Michigan from NJ on SSB Barefoot....while moveing . He was a strong station and must have good ears, LOL
Yeah a fan is a good idea or a heatsink. Both work well at keeping the radio cool. As long as that fan is moving cool air to the back of the radio it's helping. And yes the 980 are often overlooked as being a good little SSB radio. They are cpu controlled so they don't drift, and out of the box most seem to be right on tx freq. I still have mine, as well as a few others. Like you said, can't have too many lol! It's an addicting hobby. But I found that if you are a 90% or more SSB talker then save your cash and buy an HF radio. There is an Icom 718 for sale here for 300 dollars. I bet that it will knock the socks of any export on SSB. That is what they are made for mostly. Not AM. Some do good on am, but either require mods or you just get lucky or have the right radio. But for SSB, HF is the way to go. I took the plunge and won't look back. I have AM radios so I am good there. I talk SSB 99.9% of the time. So spending $200-400 a pop on radios gets expensive quick, and besides you can't talk but on one at a time anyway. So why not just save up and get a real SSB radio. With an HF radio you get what you really want for SSB. And also they don't need to be tuned and aligned, just perform the tx mod for 11m if you plan to use it there. JMHO.
The DXCC works great if you can get it up some, it would work well with the 480SAT.