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#11
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"BTIZ" wrote in message news:d9Vxb.11632$ML6.10398@fed1read01... best advice is to use the "factory charger" BT There is nothing magical about a factory charger giving you long battery life, and long run times. If you know what you are doing, about any smart charger (peak sensing), charging at reasonable amperage will charge a battery faster, and with more capacity than the factory charger ever thought about doing consistently. If you are not up to speed on this type of thing, by all means, stick to the factory charger. I do think you are jumping the gun saying it is a bad battery. It could just as well be a bad charger, or bad wire, or bad radio. -- Jim in NC |
#12
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"Harry Gordon" wrote in message ... The battery that is in the A-5 is a Ni-MH 76 mAh. I plugged it back in yesterday afternoon and just now rechecked it and either the charger isn't working or the battery is no good, for whatever reason. I am going to stop by a big electronics repair/sales store today and see if they can test my charger and go from there. I will also look for the in-line charge meter someone suggested. Harry You will have to "rig" something together using some radio shack plugs, alligator clips, and a volt-amp meter. -- Jim in NC |
#13
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Update report for those that may be interested.
I had the charger checked this morning at an electronics store and it works fine. As a result, I just sent an E-MAIL to ICom requesting their assistance on resolving either the bad battery or radio. Someone mentioned that I may have "fried" the battery. If so, all I can say is there is no meter on the radio that reflects the condition of the battery. Sounds like a design flaw to me. I will let you know what the outcome is. I appreciate all of the responses I got. Thank you. Harry |
#14
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Probably one of the most demanding uses of batteries is in the radio controlled modeling arena. Those batteries are used to depletion and recharged more often than you put gas in your spam can. In my opinion, the expert when it comes to battery questions is Red Schofield. You can find Red at: http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com/ Less you scoff at RC modeling, be careful... there are a lot of that fly full-scale machines. |
#15
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Less you scoff at RC modeling,... Not hardly ...I use to own a hobby store. I never sold RC models, but I sold a lot of other stuff :-). Harry |
#16
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On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 13:34:08 GMT, "Harry Gordon"
wrote: The battery that is in the A-5 is a Ni-MH 76 mAh. That is a very small battery. I have an A-3, that uses the same power as yours, and I use a 1400 mAh Ni-MH battery pack. I don't have the exact specs for your A-5, but for my A-3, it draws 55mA just listening, with no squelch break. At 5W (PEP) transmit power, it draws 1.0A. So just listening, with no audio output, your radio will have dead batteries in at most, 1.4 hours of use. If the squelch breaks, you're drawing 240mA at full volume, which is not that loud. So if you're monitoring a busy clearance delivery, or Tower, or Approach control, your batteries will last 30 minutes. If you transmit, with no listening, you will run your battery down in 4.5 minutes. There is no battery charger that you could buy that will make the basic NiMH battery chemistry do any better. Mike Weller |
#17
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Mike,
After I initially charged the battery, I used the radio on a number of ocassions to listen to ATC from my house. While I didn't keep track of the time, I am sure that I listened well over a couple of hours total elapse time without any problem. I keep the squelch set where the radio is quite when not receiving voice communications. Oh, I see the confusion. I wrote 76 - I should have written 760 mAh. :-(((( . Harry "Mike Weller" wrote in message s.com... On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 13:34:08 GMT, "Harry Gordon" wrote: The battery that is in the A-5 is a Ni-MH 76 mAh. That is a very small battery. I have an A-3, that uses the same power as yours, and I use a 1400 mAh Ni-MH battery pack. I don't have the exact specs for your A-5, but for my A-3, it draws 55mA just listening, with no squelch break. At 5W (PEP) transmit power, it draws 1.0A. So just listening, with no audio output, your radio will have dead batteries in at most, 1.4 hours of use. If the squelch breaks, you're drawing 240mA at full volume, which is not that loud. So if you're monitoring a busy clearance delivery, or Tower, or Approach control, your batteries will last 30 minutes. If you transmit, with no listening, you will run your battery down in 4.5 minutes. There is no battery charger that you could buy that will make the basic NiMH battery chemistry do any better. Mike Weller |
#18
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Harry
From Internet: The A-5 battery Transmit continuous for 25 minutes Receive full audio for 1.5 hours. Squelched for 10 hours. Of course if you mix you have to adjust these figures to how much you talk and listen. Don't know the A-5. Do they make a larger battery pack? Check E.H. Yost who sells batteries. I just went to Internet and he has A-5 batteries 9.6V @760 ma Ni-MH for $49.95. Didn't get on your thread earlier so don't know how you use your radio. Can you plug into the A/C electrical system? If not you can get a sealed battery of 5 - 10 amps and connect to your radio for long time use. Have years of experience with Ham hand helds and made a system to use when I traveled with internal battery, car battery or AC in hotel room. If interested in discussion let me contact you via your e-mail and we can go off line. Big John KR5K On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 13:34:08 GMT, "Harry Gordon" wrote: The battery that is in the A-5 is a Ni-MH 76 mAh. I plugged it back in yesterday afternoon and just now rechecked it and either the charger isn't working or the battery is no good, for whatever reason. I am going to stop by a big electronics repair/sales store today and see if they can test my charger and go from there. I will also look for the in-line charge meter someone suggested. Harry "BTIZ" wrote in message news:d9Vxb.11632$ML6.10398@fed1read01... best advice is to use the "factory charger" I had an ICOM-22 with the NiCD, the battery lasted about 2yrs in normal weekend operations, and would last 10hours on a charge.. I replaced it with NiMH, same charger, higher battery amp rating. No problems, lasts 10-12 hours or more on a single charge. We use it for "ramp operations" and "aircraft radio" at the local glider club. Sounds like you got a bad battery BT "Morgans" wrote in message ... "Harry Gordon" wrote in message ... Cecil, Thanks. I failed to mention that the battery that it came with is the type that does not have a memory. It can be recharged at any level. In the mean time, I have it back on my charger again. I may end up asking for another battery. Harry First of all, there is no such thing as a NiCad with no memory problems. Any other thing being said is all marketing. If they are NiMH, then the memory problem is about gone, but they self discharge more quickly, and are even more sensitive about overcharges. If you left it on the charger all weekend, you may have grossly overcharged and fried the battery. The possibility exists that the charger is not putting enough juice out. You need to get creative, and find a way to get a meter in-line, and measure the volts of the charger, while it is charging, and also the milli amps it is putting out while it is charging. Best advice is to get a smart charger to charge the thing. One source is a place like tower hobbies, like the kind of charger used on RC airplanes and cars. Then you will know that you have a full charge, without frying the battery. |
#19
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On Sat, 29 Nov 2003 23:52:30 GMT, "Harry Gordon"
wrote: Mike, Oh, I see the confusion. I wrote 76 - I should have written 760 mAh. :-(((( . Harry Ah so! No problem, just multiply the times I derived by a factor of ten. I've found that for a "working" radio, you need the 1400 mAh for it to make it through a full day. I think that you can do that with the alkaline AA cell. What I've found best is to use NiMH AA cells in the alkaline battery pack that came with your radio. It keeps you from buying alkaline batteries everyday, so the charger and batteries pay for themselves in less than a week of normal usage. Just be sure to bring along extra alkaline batteries to give you a second or third day's use if you need it for emergencies, i.e. where you are forced down away from an airport. Mike Weller |
#20
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Have you left the radio on to see how long you get?
Paul "Harry Gordon" wrote in message ... If so, all I can say is there is no meter on the radio that reflects the condition of the battery. Sounds like a design flaw to me. |
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