Thanks to all who helped on this query.

Following Tim's advice I cracked into the battery pack and found 10
2/3AF, 600 mAh NiCd cells and a small charging circuit. Now I had
something to work from.

Various helpful people quoted costs ($US 60, GBP 40) for 1200 mAh NiMH
replacement packs. Using this as a guide I had a further look around.
First off, these are very reasonable prices: my Internet search
typically found catalog prices that were a lot higher ($80+, GBP 69+).

As this hand-held will be only a backup radio, I wanted to spend as
little as possible on it and looked further.

Next stop: DIY. I checked Maplins prices for replacement cells, and
found that a set of 10 2/3AF tagged NiCd cells would cost GBP 23.90.
Thats better, but the wiring in the pack isn't straight forward and the
extra capacity would be nice, so I made one last check.

Last stop: eBay. I found a US vendor selling 1000 mAh NiMH packs for GBP
16.90 including postage. Bargain - its turned up today in good shape and
is on my radio and on charge.

I admit I'm not altogether happy with NiMH - the self-discharge rate is
much higher than for NiCd which makes occasional use problematic - and
in this case I think one or two soaring days a week (we should be so
lucky!) counts as problematic without a continuous trickle charge
system. However, my junk box contains enough bits to make up a 10 ma
trickle charger for almost nothing. I can charge the pack when needed on
the ICOM charger (10% rate) and maintain it on a lash-up trickle charger.

QUESTION: I normally use a 1% rate trickle in NiCds: you can charge them
24/7 at that rate without problems. Is that also a good rate for NiMH
or should the continuous rate be higher than 1%?


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |