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Old December 14th 03, 02:58 AM
Eric Behr
 
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Default IC-T90A external power question

I'd like to make an external high capacity pack for my T90A
for emergencies, long special events etc. The manual isn't
very clear on this subject. I'd appreciate any comments from
those who experimented with it.

I notice that when the wall-wart charger is plugged in, the
HT won't transmit (or if it does, it has minimal power) even
when the battery pack is attached and well charged. It isn't
surprising that the normal little charger is not able to put
out enough current, so the unit must be somehow disconnecting
the battery pack when the power plug is in, and tries to draw
all the juice from the external source.

So I'm thinking of making a waist-belt pack out of 8 NiMH or
6 alkaline C or D cells (so it won't exceed the 11.5V max), a
3A fuse, plugged into the jack where the charger goes. Has
anyone done that? I'm 90% sure this will be OK, since the
charger jack is supposed to work with the ICOM cig lighter
adapter so nothing inside should go up in smoke even at full
transmit power with this arrangement. But some first-hand
experiences would reassure me quite a bit. Thanks a lot.

--
Eric Behr | NIU Mathematical Sciences | (815) 753 6727
| http://www.math.niu.edu/~behr/ | fax: 753 1112