Antman
Elite Member
I had a feeling someone would ask this. It's an old Ham trick to protect the equipment from ground-fault currents on devices directly connected to the battery (additional safety or overkill if you prefer). In fact, many ham radios these days come with fuses on both sides right from the factory.
Personally, I'm not 100% convinced it's really an issue, but this is how it's recommended so I pass it along in case it will help or protect someone else.
An example of the problem:
If a negative lead were to fail (corrosion around a battery can take its toll as just one example), the starter current or current from other high current devices (depending on where the failure is) can flow through the protected device’s negative power lead. Fusing the negative lead protects the device from this.
Awesome- I would have never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense. Seems like a long shot, but a possibility. Thanks for the explanation!:thumb3: