Postby IAN TURNEY-WHITE » March 16th, 2021, 8:41 pm
I have used for many years ( over 30 years ! ) the excellent Apem switches , and have never had a failure , these are professional industry standard toggle switches from Farnell
Radio Spares also have a selection of similar switches
Look at the data sheets to determine which one suits you best .The Apem switches are extensively tested and some are good for 50,000 operations at peak loading .
A double pole , double throw switch ( sometimes marked as double throw ON-ON ) usually suits our purposes .
The positive and negative from the battery goes to the middle terminals , the positive and negative feed to the radio say at the left and on the right side , the charging lead .
With this set up , with the switch in the off position to the left , the charging lead is connected to the battery and the feed to the radio is open circuit , operating the switch to the right connects the battery to the radio and open circuits the battery to charge lead.
These need the wires soldering to the switch terminal posts and some heat shrink applied but with a decent small soldering iron its not difficult especially if you can have something to hold the switch , I like to "tin" the wires and terminal posts before soldering the wires to the terminal posts , also easier to work / start from one side
