I had an older Azden VHF radio in a box because I couldn't really afford another power supply and the one I have can't support a 3rd radio. Looking around my eyes landed on the box of old computer parts, and I remembered that a PSU for a PC supplies 12V of DC power (Yellow wire is 12vdc, black is gnd). A few snips and strips later the third radio is up and running rather nicely, with a total cost of $0.00.

I just thought I'd share this, sorry if its already common knowledge, but I thought i'd try to give back something to everyone here, maybe help them out with a quick fix.

thats a sweet idea. i ve got an old comp lying around thats stuffed. thanks for telling.
orsum!

As I found out today if you only use the 12V line and the 5V one is not connected to a load, the voltage will break down when you Tx. The open 5 V voltage will rise too much, then the regulator IC regulates all voltages down because it can only regulate both voltages together, not separate. This is because there is only one transformer used.

A simple fix is to attach a 5 ohm 10W resistor on the 5V line.