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HD Radio - Hot Stuff

J

JohnnyElectron

No, I don't mean hot as in Ohio Players' or Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff", but I mean the HD radios and tuners themselves generate a sh*tload of heat!
That's my guess on what killed my Directed Electronics car tuner (in under 2 years) was the excessive heat of the HD tuner (and lead-free solder) tha could not be dissapated in a hot car. The desktop Directed Electronics HD radio set gets damn hot too. Anybody else notice that heat issue with their HD hardware - the heat? How about Sony and the other HD offerings?
(Actually, it's not just HD tuners, but I notice Sirius hardware turns bread to toast as well).

Has anybody added a small fan or heatsink fins to their HD hardware for cooling?

The Sangean is probably ok as it is actually a very small set of boards in a very oversized metal cabinet.

Actually, the tiny BestBuy Insignia portable HD (FM only) is the only HD tuner that I've not had horrendous heat concerns about yet.
 
JohnnyElectron said:
cooling?

The Sangean is probably ok as it is actually a very small set of boards in a very oversized metal cabinet.
Click to expand...

Actually, mine crapped out at a remote. I haven't investigated what went wrong. It is just sitting in my "to-do" area. When it happened, it was in the upper 90's and the sun was beating down on it. It was really too hot to touch. At first, it got really "fuzzy" sounding - in a digital sort of way. Then it quit altogether.

I've also had the Sony go weird on a remote. Once again, the sun had it super-heated. When I got it cooled down it worked fine. At least, for now....
 
I looked at my dust-laden Sony tuner last week and felt sorry for it so I grabbed an extension cord, put it outside and me and my girlfriend and her kids roasted hot dogs over it.
 
My SONY HD table radio has a fan in it to prevent it from overheating! You feel quite a bit of heat flowing through the fan while it operates.
 
KB1OKL said:
I looked at my dust-laden Sony tuner last week and felt sorry for it so I grabbed an extension cord, put it outside and me and my girlfriend and her kids roasted hot dogs over it.
Click to expand...
A little sodium nitrate on an IC never hurt anything.
 
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