I don't know what other's opinions will be regarding this, BUT - mine is
NO. I know a guy who fried a H.F. radio twice by doing that. Maybe he
didn't have it connected altogether properly, but the charger fried his
radio twice and it cost him a few bucks to get it fixed both times. The
first time, he didn't say what caused the failure. The second time, he
figured out it had to be the charger. Since he quit using the charger at
the same time - once the set was repaired - again, the set has worked
fine. And yes, he still uses the battery and a charger. He just
disconnects the charger before using - now.
Well, there's all sorts of junk out there called "chargers", and most are
not designed to be on the battery continuously, and some don't have any
output voltage regulation at all. Wouldn't surprise me at all, if he
connected the radio to the "charger" without a battery in place, and got
18-25V or so applied to the radio.
For this sort of service, you want a unit with regulated output voltage, and
a trim adjustment.
I use switchmode because it's way more efficient, and therefore runs with no
observable heat.
There is no noise or hum into the radio, even when it's putting full output
into the battery.
My Samlex charger works nicely, and will deliver 13.8V to an open circuit,
or a 1 ohm load.
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