Amateur Radio Stack Exchange
Amateur Radio Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [battery]

Designing and using radio systems that involve battery power sources

21 questions
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5 answers

How can I prevent my mobile radio from draining my vehicle's battery?

I'm a very absentminded ham. I have a radio mounted in my car, wired directly to the vehicle battery. Fuses and high-gauge wire and all that good stuff. But, if I accidentally leave it on, my battery will be dead by the next morning! I don't know…
Dan KD2EE
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Does scanning take much more battery than listening on one channel?

I have a couple of HTs with channel scanning features. I imagine setting the radio to scan mode takes more power than just listening to a single channel, but what rough order of magnitude? Will I lose 1%, 10% or 50% of my battery life? Are some…
K0SWE
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7
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4 answers

Battery sizing for power draw

Note that this question isn't about battery capacity, at least not per se. I have a 100 Watt mobile transceiver. At 12 V and assuming 50% efficiency, that means it draws a little under 20 Amps at full power. It's currently being powered by a pair of…
Dan KD2EE
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3 answers

Battery capacity vs. weight for portable transceivers

What kind of battery has the most capacity for the weight? I want to take my transceiver backpacking, so I care about weight.
Timtech
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How can I counter DC-DC inverter noise / ground noise in an electric-vehicle mobile setup?

So, I'm relatively new to all this; and I've gotten an ICOM IC-7100 on sale, which looks like an excellent transceiver … unfortunately, this very specific line shows up in the manual: The transceiver may not receive well on some frequencies when…
ELLIOTTCABLE
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What is the socket for on this Baofeng BL-5L battery?

I have a Baofeng BL-5L battery for my Baofeng UV-5R transceiver, and I notice that it has a socket on the side: Please, what is this socket for?
Harry Weston
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Can I use new 14500 batteries instead of AA with Yaesu VX-8DR?

In addition to the proprietary battery, that came with my radio, I also purchased the part allowing usage of three AA-batteries. That was about 10 years ago, before the appearance (and wide availability) of the 14500 standard. Simply replacing AAs…
Mikhail T.
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5
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4 answers

Are there any cons of running shack on battery?

I'm building a low-power shack to operate on non-licensed bands (UHF PMR 0.5W + HF CB 4W). I don't have any "RF-grade" sources of 12(-ish) volts and don't want to buy a specialised power unit. I'm thinking of running the whole setup from a 12V…
Alexander
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How can I replace the NiMH battery in an old RigExpert AA230 Antenna Analyzer?

I have an AA-230 Pro Antenna Analyzer. Its similar about 5-10 years old with a failing battery. The battery will only hold a charge for a day or so, and only for minutes while in use. I tried: looking for a manufacturer's replacement, but it's a…
Paul
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Coax braid acting as power supply ground between radio and amplifier connected to the same supply, is this a problem?

I have a Kenwood TH-D72 and I just got an old Radio Shack HTA-20 2m amplifier to use with it. They're both powered from a sizeable 3S2P Li-Ion battery pack and they work great together for the most part, but I recently noticed something odd. I…
MoTLD
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What is the best battery type for replacing old NiCds in a Icom 2AT?

I broke out my 2AT after a number of years. The nicads in it are dead. What kind of replacement inserts should I be looking for? Nicads are so 1980s. What is the current 'best' technology?
EvilTeach
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Will I harm batteries by only trickle charging them, or connecting them to a power supply?

I have some 12V, 12Ah Enercell batteries from RadioShack, RS part number 2301219. As far as I can tell these are AGM SLA batteries. I picked up this 3-stage charger from Harbor Freight and as far as I can tell it's charging the batteries (which were…
nvahalik
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How to figure out my car battery's capacity?

I was participating in an emergency radio training and I was asked how long I could operate. I'm using an old car battery, which was sometimes not capable of starting the car in winter, which is why I have it. It has a nominal capacity of 45Ah. Is…
Thomas DK3TU
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FD Battery Stations... How Do You Log?

I'm part of a small team that runs 3AB with a few Kx3 radios. We've been struggling a bit with logging. First year was all paper and that was messy. Next couple of years one of the guys put together something that runs on RaspPi and the operators…
Kevin d.
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Storage of a Baofeng UV-5R

I am trying to find a convenient place to store my Baofeng UV-5R, I believe the most convenient place to store it would be on its charger. I was wondering if storing the UV-5R with its battery still installed, on the unplugged charger with its…
W8AWT
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