Blog has been online just around 6 months now and things were more interesting when you had Rakish vs NRO or JokerMan Electronics becoming a protected person under Fine Tune CB. Right now Fine Tune trolls have run amok. Telstar only has one theme and that is to attack amp builders to promote his plastic amplifiers.
There are other CB bloggers like SimonTheWizard that seems to have a fetish for this Midland dual mic thing or radios that use the cellular network. You know, stuff that is not actual radio but uses the internet. If I wanted to use the internet to talk to people I would use something like Discord. None of that connect my microphone to the internet to talk to people stuff wows me. It’s just a different way of talking on the phone. Then it became an app. What happens when I have no cellular coverage? I guess I don’t talk on my faux radio do I?
Sorry Simon. that’s not radio. I wager it’s dead in a year or two. Keep talking on the internet.
Telstar went on a rage for several days showing amplifier modules that were either experimental or sold on ebay to be used as part of a system. Even the Ebay listings said these were not standalone amplifiers but he called them junk because they were not standalone amplifiers and they had no relay. Well, no shit? They never said they were. Constant whining because they had no relay or no fuse or something. How about read the listings? All he ever does is whine about ‘the builders’ but you my friend are just another builder. Those fancy pictures and circuit boards never equated to sales.
Originally this post was going to be about Telstar with the mention of SimonTheWizard but I received an email about a Fine Tune post and 5 amp fuse. I already saw it but my first thought was how to write an article about it since it seemed random. I knew it was a bullshit marketing tactic but I did not know why. The email below explained it and it ‘clicked’ in my mind how and why this is going to be used.
Good write-up, Mr. Anonymous!
Even I understand it.
Today’s Fine Tune CB marketing message is subtle bullshit, but he will claim that the ‘tune’ is why the radio manufacturer specified a 15 amp fuse and can now can run with a 5 amp fuse. It could always run with a 5 amp fuse. We grabbed some 5 amp 250v China mart 3AG fast acting fuses and did some tests. None of them blew at exactly 5 amps. That’s not going to happen like clockwork on a simple 3AG type fuse. We connected them to a power supply at 14 volts with a peak hold ammeter and a switch. The closest one to the 5 amp rating blew at 7 amps but the average was a little over 9 amps. Highest was around 12 amps. That’s not too outrageous for China mart and is typical of a simple fuse. When we ran them at 5 amps continuous they eventually opened after a few hours or more. That is also typical.
If you look at a datasheet for a good fuse, like these LittelFuse 312 or 318 series fuses here: https://www.littelfuse.com/~/media/electronics/datasheets/fuses/littelfuse_fuse_312_318_datasheet.pdf.pdf
You will see that the open times at 100% of their rating is 4 hours minimum. On the first page their 5 amp fuse can reach 200% of rated load for a maximum of 5 seconds. That’s 10 amps, and this is a fuse from a reputable manufacturer and not a China mart special that comes with the radios. We have no idea what the real specs of the China mart fuses are. Stryker specifies a 15 amp fuse in a lot of their radios. That doesn’t mean the radio draws 15 amps but more like less than 2/3 of the fuse rating. This leaves a margin that you need otherwise you would be replacing fuses all the time. The radio probably draws a peak of 8-10 amps and the China mart fuse at 5 amps can likely survive many seconds at 200% load. If the user whistled into the mic and held it I bet it would eventually blow.
But wait, there is more! What was the radio power setting? Or thinner wire gauge due to the “stock company wiring harness”? how about low ambient temperature? Look at the datasheet. it was cold and rainy in the video so the rating of the fuse – even a China mart fuse – will increase. It has not been over 60F in Lordsburg, NM where I assume he is so far for this calendar month and that means the fuse could be 102-104% of it’s rating and that’s being conservative.
At least he is not telling people to put 30 amp fuses in so this is not a safety issue but he is misleading people because he has no real knowledge of electronics. This is not a ‘breakthrough’ but it is normal behavior for a fuse that requires that a strand of wire get hot enough to reach it’s melting point.
This will become a new sales pitch. You can run ‘my tune’ in a truck with a stock harness because it’s so efficient…. BULL SHIT.
He likes to ‘show it’ to prove it because remember one of his bullshit slogans about showing and snowing…
We never saw the fuse, the harness, the radio’s power setting, the voltage…..He just snowed you and will keep doing so until people wake up.
